Mutants Under Siege
by xAgentx
Summary: PLEASE REVIEW! A huge battle results in an abduction, experimentation, & unexpected love lives. In order to survive, unwanted alliances are forced upon a mixed group. UPDATE! Back to the sewers and Rogue undergoes a change. some Romy!
1. teams stick together

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the X-men, B-hood etc. "NO FAIR!" There are a couple characters that I made up, those ARE mine

Okay, this is my first X-men fic so be nice. You'll notice I have different characters and not everything that happened in the series happened in mine. This takes place after Self Possessed. The New Recruits are as follows, Sunspot, Cannonball, Jubilee, Siryn (Theresa), Multiple, Betsy (more widely known as Psylocke), Sunfire (Shiro), and Lifeguard (Heather). Mystique has not been seen at all by anyone (except Rogue in Self Possessed) since her disappearance from Asteroid M . The Brotherhood and the Acolytes are both commanded by Magneto, Boom Boom and the Scarlet Witch are part of the Brotherhood, and the Acolytes include Pyro, Gambit, Emma Frost, and Colossus. Beast is not part of the X-men, he still teaches at school, and the Brotherhood was never expelled. The Sentinel never attacked and although the public is aware of mutants they are not yet aware of possible dangers.

"UGH! I can't take any more of this." Kurt entered the living room where Rogue, Scott, and Kitty sat, chatting and half watching the TV set. "I think we have too many mutants in the institute now."

"Come one Kurt, it can't be that bad." Scott told him.

"Not that BAD?!? Why don't you try facing off Theresa and Betsy in a 'dueling' match?"

"You'll get used to it, I mean Theresa is just a bit… self-conscious but she's alright." Kitty said confidently.

"Ya, unless she's screaming in your ear, literally." He mumbled and then joined them on a nearby chair.

"Theresa is fahne, but Betsy?" Rogue began, "She's another story, Ah know from experience. Unfortunately."

"I'll—I'll have to agree with you there, Rogue." Scott admitted. Kurt kept looking every which way as if expecting something to be coming.

"Awww man! What is with you?" Kurt yelled at what seemed the hallway but then Bobby emerged.

"Hey guys!"

"Are you following me?" Kurt glared at him with annoyance. Bobby ignored the question and joined them.

"Of course he is." Kitty said, "He's been doing that ever since the Professor 'promoted' him to be an X-man.

"Hey, teams need to stick together!" Bobby said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, but it's not lahke we're glued together!" Rogue said, rolling her eyes.

"Well I got to learn from the best!"

"You know?" Scott started, "I think you have a point Kurt. There are too many people, like Drake here." Scott got up, followed by Kurt and they retreated.

"What's the matter Bobby? Aren't you going to follow them?" Kitty asked, sarcastically.

"Oh, but he cahn't do that," Rogue played along with Kitty, mocking Bobby. "Cause we're still here. Ha, pretty soon Jean'll come by and he'll trail behind her like a little lost puppy." Rogue and Kitty burst out laughing but Bobby only shrugged with an 'oh well' grin on his face.

"Hey, at least I'm being compared to a puppy rather than something a little more vile." Still smiling like a fool he got up and left.

Just a little beginning blurb. Please, tell me how you like it.


	2. everyday life

NOTE: Okay the first one was just to show that Iceman was an X-man now, it was just for fun. Here's the next chapter, and please review. I appreciate them all.

Out in the back of the institute, Logan was holding a training session with all eight New Recruits. They had only been there for less than two weeks, but just as always Logan pushed them as hard as he did the others.

"Remember," he shouted so that they could hear him. "This is an **obstacle course**, NOT a battle! Your goal is to make it to the finish without any slip-ups! No injuries, no attacking anyone else and absolutely NO shortcuts! The only thing I should see you using your powers for is getting through the course and please… try not to break anything." A huge course of different blockades covered the lawn and machinery that was shooting at them. Each recruit had very different ways of getting through.

Jubilee easily dodged attacks without failure and ruined some of the machinery by shooting some fireworks at it. She scaled a wall but came across a robot that caught her off guard and she fell down the other side. Cannonball came along and shot right through the wall she had just climbed. 

"hey, no faIIRRR!!" She ended her comment in a scream as she had just gotten caught in a fiery blast from Sunfire who had just shot down a robot attacking him, lets just say it got a little out of control. Jubilee thought he was trying to hit her and set a stream of fireworks his way. Not only did they hit him but they nicked Siryn who had been flying in circles to dodge some obstacle blasts. This caught her unawares and she let out a high-pitched scream that put a dent in everyone's ears at least a mile around. Lifeguard was the only one still going because right on the spot she developed sonic abilities to cope with the noise and finished the obstacle while everyone on institute grounds clutched their ears in pain. Siryn gained a little self-control and shut herself up. Logan and all the Recruits glared at her with the exception of Lifeguard who stood idly against the wall waiting for this to end. Logan was ready to do Siryn in for that painful racket.

"Remember Logan," The Professor's voice echoed inside his head. "We must be patient with Theresa, her powers are difficult to cope with. Lets at least be thankful she has a level of control. None of us can be angry with her for her breakouts of noise, for that is who she is. That is **why** we're training her in the first place."

"I'll try to hold back, Charles." Logan thought, "It just gets to me that's all. I know all you said is true." Logan took a deep breath and decided to deal with Lifeguard first, who was the only one to finish the course. "All right. Lifeguard, since you were the only one to finish today I'm going to let you off early… for once. You were the only one who didn't give me a headache so I'll give you the day off." Heather, codename Lifeguard, was the one Logan was most patient with. She was diligent and hardworking, even more so than anyone of the X-kids. She never slipped up on training sessions so that made her tolerable.

"Now…" He growled at the rest, "For the rest of you. I'll split you up into two teams. One team of three and one team of four, somewhere on these grounds is a small disc, first team to find it doesn't have to do danger room sessions today." All of their eyes lit up, except for Betsy's. "It's going to be, Sunspot, Siryn and Multiple, versus Jubilee, Cannonball, Sunfire, and you Braddock. Oh, almost forgot. You have exactly 30 minutes to find it or all of you end up doing an extra session." Everyone groaned at the mention of that and then ran off in different directions.

"They are quite lively, Charles." Ororo spoke as she and the Professor watched out the window as the Recruits struggled to find that disc.

"They are, and quite promising… well most of them anyway."

"I assume you had a couple in mind when saying that?" The look on his face was most definitely a yes.

"I think even Logan knows which ones are the most committed. And not by reading his mind."

"Heather obviously being one of them?" She inquired.

"Betsy too, there's something about her, but even I can't put my finger on it." He said. They watched as the team of three returned to Logan with the disc.

"Hmmm… Do you think I should change my name now that I'm an official X-man?" Bobby quipped as he talked with Rogue.

"You are takin' this WAY too seriously. It's overkill!! You're an X-man okay? There's nothin' tuh git all giddy about."

"**I'M **giddy?!?"

"Yah!" She answered, annoyed with how he was taking the situation. "Ya know what? Maybe you **should** change your name. To somethin' more fitting lahke 'Ice-loser' or 'Over-obsession-Man'." Rogue got up, unable to take any more of this, and passed Sam, Shiro, and Jubilee, followed by Betsy on the way out.

"Man! We could've won that!" Jubilee whined.

"Yeah, exemption from today's Danger Room session, but no. We not only have to go but have extra." Sam complained.

"I think I'm gonna skip," Shiro commented. "What about you guys?"

"No way, I don't want to wind up doing even more than we're already stuck with." Sam was sure about that much.

"I don't get why we have to do this anyway." Jubilee went on. "I mean, what are we preparing for? Hey! Betsy, you're sure you didn't miss anything?" She was silent and avoided all of their gazes as they stared, waiting for an answer.

"Wait a second…" Shiro, AKA Sunfire, began to figure something out. "You--you wanted to fail didn't you?" he accused. "You love all those simulations we have to go through." Both Jubilee and Sam seemed to agree.

"You sabotaged it didn't you?!?" Jubilee began to raise her voice. Betsy's gaze penetrated them and all three started to rush her to attack but before they barely moved she had leapt off the wall and landed about 30 feet away in a crouch. Then she smiled and a very guilty smile at that. All of them ran after her even though they'd never be able to catch up with her, she was too nimble.

"So don't you think--HEY! Watch where you're going!" Kitty yelled as the four New Recruits passed her in a blur, she had only been able to phase through Betsy. "Can't you see that I'm on the phone?!?" She took a deep breath and placed the phone back to her ear. "Sorry about that Lance--ugh, Newbies. So, what were you saying?" Kitty wandered down the hallway to her bedroom. "Ohh, really?!? Cool!" Kitty listened intently on the phone since it had almost been week since she'd talked with Lance on the phone. There was just something about him that was appealing, and plus there was the fact he took any chance he got to impress her. She found that sweet. As long as he wasn't making bad puns or sending earthquakes every which way he was a pretty decent guy. Plus he was cute!

"Hey Kitty, sorry but I gotta go now. See you at school?… great. Bye." Lance hung up the phone and tossed it onto a nearby table. He waltzed over to the couch and was about to slump down on it when out of nowhere a silver-haired demon got there first.

"Oops, were you going to sit here? Too bad! Guess you were too slow. Not like that's news or anything." Pietro was all-smug as he grabbed the remote and switched the tube on. Lance was about to yell at him and it looked like he would strangle him too but Pietro interrupted again. "Maybe if you weren't talking to a certain **someone** you could've gotten here first but HEY ya didn't so… let it go." By the looks of it Pietro had no intention of getting up soon so Lance had to settle for a beat-up chair. They hadn't been sitting their for two minutes when there was an explosion that caused the entire house to shake, followed by some very angry yells, womanly yells to be more precise.

"You cannot just BARGE right in anytime you want! The door is locked for a reason!" Wanda's yells echoed through the house. For a second it was believed that Toad was the cause of this but then another voice proved them wrong.

"Well soorrrrrrrry. I was out of toothpaste, come on, lighten up!" The voice wasn't even half as mad as Wanda's, in fact it was almost cheerful, and it belonged to a certain Tabitha. Several time bombs were thrown from upstairs and landed scattered in the foyer and the lounging area where Pietro and Lance lay. They both stared at the small little balls of energy, then at each other. The next thing they were both screaming as they ran into the kitchen to avoid the pain of the explosions.

"She's right baby cakes," Toad's voice could now be heard from upstairs. "You gotta take it easy. Here, let me help you." He stretched out his arms, waiting for a hug. Only a second later there was a Toady scream as he was thrown off the top of the steps by a hex bolt and went crashing out the front door. Wanda came trudging down the steps and stopped halfway.

"And MAYBE, you should just stay out there!" She yelled and used her powers to shut the door.

"Aw MAN!" Toad whined to himself. "Every time!" a fly came buzzing around him and he stuck his tongue out to snatch. Or what he though was a fly. "Thus jus' ain't mah day." He said aloud with his tongue hanging out and a very visible bee sting on it.

NOTE: How do you like it? good, bad?


	3. a heart to head conversation

NOTE: This tells of one of the MANY… attractions that will be in this story. Along with the main story there'll be love triangles overlapping others, but you'll have to wait to find out more.

Kurt is absolutely right. Rogue thought to herself, alone in her room. Ah mean everywhere ya turn ya bump intah someone. It was crowded already with six mutant kids and three adults but now eight more? An' with Jamie it's lahke there's a small army livin' here.

Rogue felt even more isolated than before with a larger amount of people for her to avoid. It just meant more obstacles, more people she had to avoid touching. Like she did many other days, today she longed for a normal life, one where she could live and love. Time tuh stop feeling sorry for mahself, for now anyway. She thought, okay, Ah need to think of somethin' else, a distraction.

Well let's see… On the less bright side of things Bobby, or should I say Ice-head, is now on 'the team'. Sorry if Ah don' leap fur joy. There's jus' somethin' about him that gets tuh me. He jus' gets under mah skin. Him with his pranks, overworked jokes, and that goofy smile he always wears. There should be a law against smilin' that much for no danged reason, he's a fool that's wut he is.

Rogue looked out her window and good see him running from Logan who he had no doubt pulled a prank on. Heh, she thought, only he would be have the guts to get Logan that mad. Or maybe Ah should rephrase that. He's that… thickheaded that he would risk his life jus' tuh play a prank on the last person ya wanna get angry. She watched him, grinning from ear to ear as every now and then he would ice a patch of ground just to make Logan slip and fall behind. She could hear faintly what was going on. Some growls from Logan and Bobby just kept laughing his head off.

Nice laugh for a class clown like that, she thought. Then straightened up as realized she was thinking about Bobby. His smile and his laugh were infectious, if he did either you couldn't help but do it too, even if you're really mad at him. That goes for just about everyone but Logan who wouldn't laugh like that if a good joke slapped him in the face. It was just… that grin he had his signature smirk that made Bobby, Bobby. Rogue shook her head as if to rattle those thoughts out of her brain.

"Man, Ah musta hit mah head hard or somethin', tuh be caught thinkin about him." Now determined not to let her thoughts wander in that direction, Rogue got up to go find… someone. Rogue wasn't sure where her feet were carrying her but soon found herself a couple feet away from the first person she'd seen since she left her room, Betsy. Hardly able to believe, herself, that she was going to find company in this unpredictable maniac. Yet she still sat down nearby and watched her meditate.

"Oh look a visitor." Betsy said so solemnly that she could have been speaking someone's eulogy.

"No need tuh get happy all at once." Rogue said sarcastically.

"You do realize you're interrupting my meditating… BUT, I'll make special time for you Rogue." She had an unsuspected smirk on her face. Rogue raised and eyebrow in confusion. "Sooo… what do you wanna talk about?" She asked in an almost cheerful tone of voice.

"Ah though' you were psychic." Rogue said with suspicion.

"Oh… I am, I was just going to wait until **you** brought up Bobby instead of rudely bringing it up like I just did." When she said this, Rogue's mouth hung open slightly in astonishment and then her cheeks flushed with color.

"That wasn' what Ah wanted tuh talk abou'." She told Betsy firmly, after taking a deep breath and trying not to sound angry.

"of COURSE it wasn't." Betsy retaliated with sarcasm as she closed her eyes and by the look of it had returned to her meditating.

"Betsy?"

"I'm still here, Rogue, I just need to do some multitasking in order to get my meditating in too." Rogue wasn't sure why she found some sort of comfort in this girl Betsy, but for some reason they had something in common, she just wasn't sure what it was. "Ohh… So is that what you wanted to talk about?" She asked calmly. It took Rogue a couple seconds to realize she was referring to the thoughts she just had in her head.

"Why do ya keep getting intuh mah head?!?" Rogue yelled.

"Convenience. I don't put up mental barriers like Jean and the Professor do so I'm always bound to pick up whatever a person thinks right on the spot. It doesn't bother me, it just makes conversations easier to get through. If you haven't noticed, the only reason I got your situations out in the open is cause I brought it up. If I had left it o you to bring it up then you'd be shuffling about nervously until you finally left without saying a word." Betsy said all of that in one breath but Rogue took in every word.

"Ya know? Ah actually think Ah understand your reasoning. You don' have as strong of telepathy as the Jean and the Prof do, do you?" Betsy answered this question with silence. Then some thoughts formed in Rogue's mind. They said, I thought you were here to talk about you. She realized those were Betsy's thoughts. Now, knowing all to well Betsy, like her, didn't like being too open about anything involving her past. Even though it was just about her powers she knew Betsy wouldn't tell anything anytime soon. "Sorry, it's jus' hard. With everyone in the mansion, and now there's even more people?!? More people that Ah have tuh avoid because of what Ah am."

"That is a toughie. You'll have to live your life and all the while remember they can't touch you. This is only the start, but how can you let that affect everything else? Yeah it's kind of a necessity to be aloof, but don't let that tread on all your other emotions. If you do you'll only get worse. For example, don't deny what you feel, its more than a fact. You should act on impulse and tell people what you really feel." Rogue eyed her suspiciously after she finished.

"Aww… are ya back on the Bobby thing **again**??" Rogue whined.

"What did I just say? Admit the truth to yourself and then it'll be easier to talk."  
"Ugh, Ah don' think of him that way. He's an annoying Ice-head!" When Rogue said this Betsy sighed.

"We've seen the first sign and now you have the second symptom of love."  
"Sure. And that would be?" She asked mockingly.

"Insults. Once you like someone you attempt to prove that you hate them." She eyed Rogue warily.

"What?!?"

"Oh I'm just waiting for the third symptom to show."

"Ya know what? Ah'm done with this." Rogue got up and left.

"There IT IS!!!" Betsy yelled after Rogue. "You've got it all ROGUE!! 1--2--3, I think someone's crushing!!!" Hearing Betsy's yells echo through the house Rogue groaned.

"Sometimes she can be more insightful than the Professor and at other times she can be more childish than Bobby." She mumbled aloud to herself. Entering her room, Rogue looked at herself in the mirror. Then firmly she said aloud to herself. "Ah am NOT in luv with Bobby Drake." Satisfied, she flopped down on her bed.

NOTE: I hope you like the character I've created for Betsy. Tell me what you think.


	4. to skip or not to skip

I hope all of you review. I really need to know how I'm doing.

Jubilee wandered around aimlessly through the mansion, looking this way and that. She was hoping to "accidentally" bump into that devious Betsy but so far failed to see anyone, period. Making her way down one of the hallways she saw a slightly open bedroom door. She strolled in to find Rogue laying on her bed, seemingly fuming, or something close to it.

"What's eating you?" She asked through almost half a laugh. Rogue jumped, she didn't hear Jubilee enter.

"Nothin'."

"Okay, that was SO unconvincing." Rogue was annoyed by how cheerful Jubes was when she was feeling so, even she wasn't sure what or why she was feeling.

"Lets jus' say Ah had a little heart to heart with Betsy over there."

"Betsy?" Jubilee perked up at the name, her insides still boiling with the need for revenge. "Where **is** she?" Rogue eyeballed her curiously at Jubilee's failed attempt to sound innocent.

"Who wants tuh know?" Jubilee opened her mouth to answer but nothing came out. "That's what Ah thought. Ah'm not gonna tell you when the only thing on your mind is revenge. Jus' deal with it." Now that Rogue had passed her livid emotions onto her, Jubilee left.

"I'm thinking Shiro had the right idea." She thought aloud to herself. "Maybe I should skip the Logan session. I don't have enough energy today anyway." Jubilee smiled to herself about her idea and quickly left on a thorough search to find the other recruits. She knew Betsy would never skip and Heather would tattle or something, even though she got off because she was Logan's "favorite". Looks like I'll need to find company in everyone else. Even though Roberto and Theresa got off they might want to come. I'm not gonna ask Jamie, he'll just be a nuisance. After a bit of moseying she found Roberto and Shiro outside soaking up some sun, literally.

"Hey, Shiro! I got to thinking and skipping today doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"I knew you'd see it my way soon enough." He said with a smile.

"Maybe if you guys had won you wouldn't be worrying 'bout this." Roberto said to them. "Like I did."

"Sure, yeah you're SO great, Roberto. The "Incredible Sunspot", stand back as he works his magic." Jubilee said sarcastically as she mocked him. Roberto threw her a look but then smiled. She couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. "Well anyway, I was thinking that we get outta here and do something really fun and wild."

"Hmmm…" Shiro thought aloud. "Go to extra Logan sessions and have the time of my life. Such a **difficult** choice." He said sarcastically. "I'm with you all the way."

"Good." She turned to Roberto. "How about you?"

"Sorry, I don't have any sessions to skip." He said smiling. "Well," He started. "As long as it's fun in the sun, I'm in."

"Alright, let me round up the others. You guys can… choose our transportation." She said with a wink. Then she ran off to the tennis courts where Sam and Theresa were playing. Nearby Jamie was reading some comic books under the tree. "Hey, guys!" She called to them and Sam looked over in her direction just as Theresa served.

"HA, I aced you! Game, set, match, I win!" Theresa shouted.

"That ain't fair! Jubilee distracted me."

"Well, it's your fault that you looked, so I **still** win!"

"Hey, Theresa, great job!" Jamie came forward, comic book in hand as he congratulated her.

"Thanks Jamie." She was a little calmer around him it seemed. Usually she was a very hyperactive person but whenever she was around Jamie she seemed saner. Her cheeks flushed at his compliment but he assumed it was because she had just been playing a whole tennis match. They were the two youngest in the entire institute; Theresa was one year older.

"So… what do you think?" Jubilee whispered to Sam. She had just been telling him about her idea of getting out of there during their supposed session. "Come on… Shiro and Roberto are coming. There are tons of things better than staying here and getting a beating." His eyes darted over to Theresa who was talking with Jamie enthusiastically. I thought he would jump for this, Jubilee wondered to herself.

"Maybe… I'm not sure. Who--who else are you going to ask?"

"Well, NOT Heather. If she finds out she'll tattle to Logan and then we'll be in trouble. She's like his little puppet. Definitely not Betsy, she might not tell, but I can't be too sure. Besides she loves those sessions for some crazy reason." Jubilee paused as she noticed Logan stumble into the mansion with a frozen foot and she couldn't help but laugh. I guess Bobby got the better of him, she thought to herself, remembering the little chase around the yard.

"Who **are** you going to ask?!" Sam asked, impatiently.

"Oh, sorry. Well, I was going to ask Theresa, but I gotta wait till she's done talking with Jamie. I don't want him hanging around; sometimes he just gets too annoying and in the way."

"Yeah…" Sam agreed, his eyes still on the two talking, "Sure, why not, but we better leave soon. The session starts in less than half an hour." Jubilee and Sam both watched the two youngest conversing and finally they heard Jamie say see you later and he left for the mansion.

"Hey, Guthrie! Wanna do some volleys?!?" Theresa was barely speaking but it became a yell because of her hard to control powers.

"Hold on!" Jubilee interrupted. "I was wondering, Theresa, if you'd like to come with us for some… fun."

"But YOU guys have LOGAN sessions!!!" Both Sam and Jubi covered their ears.

"Could ya TRY to keep it down?!?" Jubilee asked, exasperated.

"Ohhh…" She finally realized what Jubilee was doing. "You're going to skip."  
"Yeah 'genius'. Glad you figured it out." Jubilee rolled her eyes while stating her sarcastic remark.

"Sure I'll come. You guys really want me?" She walked to the side of the court they were on.

"Wel--"

"--Of course we do." Sam interrupted Jubilee, cheerfully. He knew that Siryn was not one of Jubilee's favorite people, but at times they got along well.

"So lets get going!" Jubilee shouted excitedly. Time for some fun, she thought to herself.

"Wait… what about Jamie?" Jubi winced at that question but Sam took care of it.

"Come on Theresa! Do you really need to do **everything** with him? Or do you need him around just to have some fun?" Wanting to prove Sam wrong and that she was capable of having fun without the Multiple Man around she dropped the subject.

"Shiro and Roberto should already be in the garage." Jubilee said as she turned to enter the institute.

"Hey!" Sam called.

"Yeah! Where do you think you're going?!?" Theresa asked the question they both wondered.

"Hey, to have fun we need to the king of fun himself to do that! Anyway, we need a driver, none of us can do that legally!" She continued on through the door as they ran towards the garage. Both gave each other puzzled looks as to who she could be talking about.

"She's right." Theresa said.

"Yeah, fun does **not** involve getting caught driving without a license. Bad enough that we're gonna get killed by Logan for this, we don't need the police on our backs too." Sam pointed out. They quickly entered the garage and joined Sunfire and Sunspot in the X-van. Roberto was sitting in the driver's seat

"Where's Jubilee?" Shiro asked.

"I'm right here." She said, clambering into the back seat, next to Shiro who was playing with a fireball in his hand.

"Lets hit the road!" shouted Roberto as he opened the garage door.

"Not so fast, a voice said." He opened the driver's door. "Move over Sunspot, Iceman's in the house!" Bobby yelled as Roberto slid over to the passenger side and he climbed into the driver's seat. "Sooo… Where to? He asked as he stepped on the gas and the vehicle went screeching down the driveway.

"What about the gate?!?" Theresa yelled, full of panic.

"No sweat!" Yelled Bobby over the wind whistling through the open windows. "I opened that before the key was in the ignition!" Roberto looked back at Jubilee who had a devious look on her face. Roberto poked Bobby to get his attention and motioned towards Jubilee. "I'm guessing you have something in mind Jubes?" Bobby asked with a similar smile on his face.

"Yeah, take a right!" She yelled. "We're going to cook up a little something of our own."

Little did Bobby or any of the passengers notice a motorcycle was parked outside of the gate. A small figure sat upon the bike, hands gripping it with one foot on the ground. Right when the van turned a sharp right, the biker revved up and followed them. The color of the designs matching that of its rider's hair.

NOTE: Okay I'll get the next chapter up soon! Please review! I want to know how I'm doing. Do like it? Do you hate it? Is there something you'd like to see happen?


	5. the tussle

Here's the next chapter and please take time to review.

"WOOHOO!!" Theresa screamed out the window as Bobby sped up, weaving in and out of cars. Everyone shot looks at her and except for Sam, and Bobby was the only one who didn't cover his ears, he couldn't since he was driving. Jubilee decided that instead of being annoyed at Theresa it would be much more fun if she was screaming right along with her. So they both stuck their heads out of the windows, screaming. "Hey guys. Watch this." Theresa prompted as she unbuckled her seatbelt and flew out the window. She followed them from above and then, actually focusing her sonic ability, she let out a pitched scream. Through some miracle it affected everything above the road, not on it. All the streetlights busted and second story windows were cracking. Everyone couldn't help but laugh at people's reactions from all around.

"Bobby! Take another right!" Jubilee yelled over Siryn. The scream didn't hurt their ears but it didn't stop them from hearing it. Siryn landed on the top of the van and held on.

"This is GREAT!" She yelled over the wind. Roberto transformed into his solar form and flew to the roof of the van to join Siryn.

"Ahh the sun feels **great** up here!!" He shouted.

"Any idea where we're going?!?" Siryn yelled to Sunspot.

"NO clue!! Jubilee is being very secretive!" He answered back, staring at a bike that was only two cars behind them. He had been watching it for a while after he got up there and every turn they had taken and even when Bobby had swerved back and forth between lanes that bike had followed the same movement, in sync. "Hey! Is that bike followin' us?"

Siryn turned her head to look and just then Bobby took a left and the bike followed them, now directly behind them. Some of Jubilee's yells could be heard from the interior and the Iceman quickly took a U-turn and… so did the bike. She was about to tell them when they took a couple quick turns in a row and the van slowed. To the right was a large beaten up house and a huge sign at the front said 'The Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House'. The van didn't stop but started to slowly pass by.

"This is our grand destination?" Theresa asked Roberto who shrugged. Jubilee overheard her.

"This is only the beginning. What's a little fun, but messing around with the Brotherhood." All of them smirked at the idea. "So who wants to start?" Siryn answered the question by flying up into the air and hovered high above the end of the driveway.

"Hold on!" Yelled Sam.

"What for?!?" She said back, not wanting to yet alert people of her presence.

"Listen and make sure they're all there first." She nodded at this and concentrating she detected 2… 5… 6 separate sounds. She motioned that they were all there and smiling took a deep breath.

There was like 1 second of pure silence and then a super high-pitched scream pierced the air. At first it wasn't focussed and reached the other recruits' ears but then directed it solely at the rundown house. Inside everyone was cowering and covering their ears as the glass on the windows was breaking up and the TV screen was cracking. It lasted for about 5 minutes, that's when Siryn ran out of air. Once it stopped they could all hear the yelling coming from inside and laughed. Siryn, she flew back in through the window of the van and landed in a sitting position on the seat.

"Great one, Theresa!" Shouted Bobby as all the others, through their laughter nodded in agreement.

"Watch this!" Jubilee said as she leaned out of the window next to Theresa and stuck her arm out the window. Getting her aim down, she could see Pietro and Blob through the broken window. "This is too easy, they're right in plain sight!" 

She charged up energy in her hand and shot a stream of it right for that window. Not only did it hit the Blob, the easiest target around, but also it skimmed Pietro's head, knocking him to the ground and unluckily for him Blob fell right on top of him. This only pulled more laughter out of the bunch.

"**This **is the life!" Shiro said through tears of laughter. "Now, it's my turn." He took Roberto's empty seat and leaned out of the window. Then, as if on cue Toad and Lance wandered out of the door to find where all of this was coming from. Gaining an evil-like grin on his face, Sunfire powered up a fiery blast on his fist and let it fly one after another. One hit Toad's foot, another hit Lance's leg and the others hit the wall causing it to go up in flames. Bobby, getting an idea, quickly began to get out of the van.

"Be right back." He said, slamming the door shut. Circling around to the back he eyed a back door. Then, sniggering he iced it several times over until he was sure it was secure, then he began icing up every window he could see. Inside, Wanda was NOT happy with this painful commotion. She came to the top of the stairs and saw the front of the house was a blaze. She slowly walked down the steps and stretched her hands in front. With her powers she extinguished the flames completely and walked through the doorway where the front door used to be. Looking fiercely about she spotted a van stopped on the road, and her eyes narrowed. Close behind her was Tabitha, Fred, and Pietro and all of them looked pissed off. Their gazes were directed to the van where the new recruits were laughing their heads off. The Recruits were yet to notice that the Brotherhood looked ready to attack or the fact that all six were all standing there, aware of their antics.

Bobby was looping back to the front and noticed the pickle they could be in. Avalanche had stretched out his arms, about to set off an earthquake when he was frozen solid. The rest, Bobby encased in a box of ice. He then hurried over to the van at the sound of cracking ice.

"Let's get outta here!" Bobby yelled as he turned the key in the ignition. Before they even pulled away all the ice exploded, including the statue of Alvers, by a combined force of Boom Boom and the Scarlet Witch. In a second there were several time bombs thrown towards the van but Bobby stepped on the gas just in time. "Whew! That was a close one." Jubilee turned in her seat just in time to see Lance's jeep pull out of the driveway and follow them, a little too close for comfort.

"Uhhh guys? We've got company!" She said frantically, and the others turned every which way to catch a look. Bobby spotted them in the rearview mirror.

"Well, we'll just have to lose them, that's all." Bobby floored the van and the screeched around the next corner he could find.

"They're gonna pay." Pietro said through his teeth as Lance followed them closely. "Ya know I could catch up with them a **lot** faster if you'd just let me out." He moved to open the door but Boom Boom stopped him.

"Oh yeah, Speedy? How are you gonna slow 'em down once you catch up?" Pietro shot her a look.

"I'll slow them down!" Wanda snarled, standing up. She held out her hands and began to focus her powers.

"While she does that why don't you be some help and step on the gas, Slowpoke!?!" Hearing this, Lance took a quick turn that led them down an alleyway.

Meanwhile, "I think we're losing them!" Shouted Sam as Bobby took a quick turn that led them straight into the city.

"Lucky for us its not rush hour." Bobby said adjusting his mirror and double-checking that the jeep could not be seen.

"At least we were able to get some fun in." Roberto commented after he leaned over the roof and into the window so he could be heard.

"Heh, and at least we lost them." Jubilee said with Relief. Bobby began slowing down. "Hey, you can make that light." At that he sped up and right at the three-way intersection, with an alleyway on the right side, a green jeep pulled out right in front of them. "Look out!!!" The van screeched to a quick stop inches from the vehicle that contained the Brotherhood.

"This don't look good." Shiro commented, with a bit of regret in his voice. All around cars were honking for them to move. The looks on the Brotherhood's faces were quite foreboding.

"Nice job **Lance**, and you didn't even use your powers to stop them. Looks like you're not a **complete** failure after all." Pietro said smugly.

"I'm not giving up yet!" Said Bobby. In a quick movement he pulled the van into reverse and without turning around went backwards down the left side of the road. Although unexpected the Brotherhood was not far behind.

"I'm tired of this chase, it ends NOW!" Lance yelled as he stuck one arm out the side of the jeep and shifted the ground right below the van. It wasn't long before it got stuck between some huge cracks.

"Hang on!" Roberto yelled as he powered up from the sun again and lifted the van out and placed it on smooth ground.

"No way are they getting away again!" Boom Boom yelled as she got a handful of time bombs and threw them at the van before it moved. The first few blew up against the back window while the others landed inside after the window blew up. All of them scrambled out of the van just before the remaining time bombs blew.

"Looks like we've got a fight on our hands." Yelled Bobby and he smiled at the thought. A chance to prove himself. The recruits prepared themselves as the Brotherhood faced them off. Siryn flew into the sky, followed by Sunfire who had fireballs on his fists. Sunspot was still glowing with solar energy and Jubilee had small flashing lights in her palms.

"Guys, I think its time to rock this joint!" Avalanche yelled as the ground beneath them began to rumble and give way.

"Somehow I don't think so." Sunspot mumbled to himself. He jumped high into the sky and landed next to Avalanche and in a couple swift movements easily pinned him on his stomach.

Jubilee was up against Scarlet Witch. She sent a stream of fireworks her way but Wanda deflected them back the way they came. A nearby stop sign came to life and tried to wrap itself around Jubes but her energy was enough to break it. Her powers were definitely not enough to stop such a witch. Iceman, seeing Jubilee was in trouble, froze Wanda solid.

"Ha, bet she didn't see that one coming." Bobby said triumphantly.

Sunfire was doing just as good against Blob as Jubilee was against Wanda. There was way too much of him so the fire wasn't very affective. One stream of fire after another, Blob still endured. The only thing that worked was flashes of light that blinded Blob long enough for Sunfire to escape out of his path.

Toad was observing the scene from the top of the ruined X-van. He was aghast when he saw Wanda, frozen like a statue. "Don' worry sweetums!" He shouted. "I'm comin'!!" Toad took a hop off the side of the building next to them and landed right next to her. "Aww man!" He voiced towards Bobby. "Look--look whatya did!" He looked into her frozen face. Then he got an idea. "Hmmm, she's only frozen so it'd just be like the real thing…" He leaned forward, about to kiss her when less than an inch away he was frozen solid.

"Haha ha ha!" Jubilee cracked up and pointed.

"I was going to that, I just had to wait for the right moment. Suppose she'll thank me when she unfreezes?" Bobby smiled with pride at what he did. Not for long though cause next second a whirlwind surrounded him and he was hoisted up into the air. He kept trying to freeze who he knew it was but it kept going past him and either hitting a parking meter, a street sign, the sidewalk or a passing car.

"What's the matter?!? Can't ya hit me?!?" Quicksilver asked mockingly. Bobby's face screwed up in anger and annoyance. Siryn, watching from above, saw the trouble Iceman was in and flew closer. Obviously the speed man hadn't noticed but Bobby definitely became more hopeful at the sight of her. She made sure she was right above them, Bobby braced himself, and she let out a high pitched scream. "AGGH!!" Pietro was forced to stop and he fell to the ground clutching his ears. Iceman would have fallen on top but iced up a platform to catch himself. The scream did some bad too. The ice around Toad and Wanda cracked and broke apart, and it gave her enough time to throw Toad out of the way before he kissed her.

"You'll pay for that!!" Wanda yelled, pointing at Iceman. Holding her hands out in his direction, everything around him came to life and his ice platform crumbled. All the attacks were now directed at her. Sunfire threw a stream of fire, Jubilee threw her fireworks, Iceman shot a beam of ice, Siryn forced a wave of sound at her, Sunspot threw Avalanche at her, and Cannonball began flying right at her. All attacks streamed towards her but right when they were the about to hit her they did an about face and flew back the direction they came. Iceman became frozen in a block of ice up to his shoulders, Jubilee got blasted and so did Sunfire. Avalanche went flying back at Sunspot who caught him and slammed him into the ground. Cannonball went flying into a passing semi that went sideways into a building. Siryn was the only one who got hit by her powers an remained unaffected; all it was, was a sound wave.

"A little help?" Avalanche said into the ground.

"I'll help ya Lance!" Blob said as he came charging forward. As he came closer, Sunspot was less and less sure of whether or not he'd be able to withstand all of that. Too late, Blob rammed into him, practically knocking him out as he was no longer in his solar form. He hit the concrete hard.

Quicksilver observed the battle from the sidelines for a bit, still rubbing his ears. Cannonball took advantage of this and picking him self up from where he hit the huge truck ran and flew right at him. Pietro noticed just in time and ran about 4 feet to the left. Cannonball continued going and hit Blob, which had no affect since he was immobile. Blob threw him on top of Sunspot who still lay on the ground.

Now only Siryn and Jubilee were left to fight because Sunfire was too busy melting away Iceman's entrapment while trying to fight off Boom Boom at the same time.

"Come on! Don't ya wanna play?" She asked innocently. "I thought that was the reason you came, after all that was an invitation you gave us." She smiled as she threw a handful of time bombs right at Sunfire. Taken by surprise, a huge blast of fire came out as he flew backwards to avoid getting hit. The blast not only melted the huge block of ice but it toasted Iceman as well.

"Thanks a lot, **Sunfire**." He said looking down at his burnt clothes.

Even though Iceman now rejoined the fight they were still fighting a losing battle. Avalanche was back up and kept anyone on the ground from powering up or aiming correctly.

"That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!!" Toad yelled as he bounced up and down, cheering Lance. After the encounter with Boom Boom even Sunfire, who normally flew, was grounded. Siryn was the only one left to fight and was not having an easy time with Wanda on her hands.

The fight had not been going on very long. Somewhere along an alleyway a lone motorcycle drove this way and that, searching for something or someone. It pulled to a halt and the rider closed her eyes. Suddenly she was speeding off as if given a vision of where she was going. Two more turns and the motorcycle whipped out onto the street about 50 feet from the raging war between the Recruits and the Brotherhood.

"There they are… I can't believe I lost them before." She pulled to a halt and climbed off the bike. Pulling off her helmet, her long violet hair fell out. "They're going to thank me after this." She slinked closer and closer to the battle until she was right behind Avalanche who was causing the most trouble. She crouched behind some rubble, her right hand clenched in a fist. Suddenly a pink aura surrounded her fist, taking on the appearance of a sort of knife. "Time to turn the tides." She mumbled to herself.

NOTE: So what did you think?


	6. turn of the tides?

"Hi-YA!!" She leapt out and landed, sitting on Lance's shoulders with her legs wrapped around his neck she sunk her psychic knife into the top of his head. In a moments notice he collapsed to the ground, unconscious or at least close to it. The entire Brotherhood took notice of her entrance but it didn't much matter. In what seemed less than a second, she had Toad in a headlock and held her psychic knife inches from his skull.

"Hey! Hey, lemme go! Please I'll--I'll do anything just don' stick me with that!" Toad scrambled every which way but couldn't break free.

"Betsy!" Bobby said in a forced cheerful voice. "It's--it's you." he stammered.

"Bobby? You went with them too? Man, Logan is going to have your HEAD!"

"Logan sent you?!?" Jubilee asked in a panicky voice.

"No! He doesn't even know you've gone this far out of your way. All he knows now is probably that you'r--**we're** nowhere on institute grounds. He probably thinks that I went with you cause I followed you out." Siryn eyed the motorcycle sitting in the alley.

"That was **you**?!? We saw you following us but we didn't know it was YOU. I didn't even know you had a bike!"

"Well, I do." She looked down at the scrambling Toad under her arm.

"Somebody do somethin!!" Toad yelled to his teammates. He looked at Wanda who wasn't even paying attention.

"I'll get you outta that tight spot, Toady." Boom Boom replied, powering up a big time bomb in her hands.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Anyone but you." It was too late cause right then she hurled it at Betsy. Being quite strong on her own, she hoisted Toad into the air and used him to shield herself. At that point her grips was not tight around him and Quicksilver whizzed by, snatching Toad out of her hands.

"Not so fast speedster!! You will soon learn I am NOT a person to mess with!" She lifted her left hand to her temple to concentrate. A pink, translucent bolt shot out of her mind and attacked him, causing him to collapse on the spot. Even the other Recruits were stunned at this. Even though they lay on the ground in some sort of pain, Sam and Roberto had also been watching.

"Whoa!" Sam commented, getting up. "What did you just do to him?" Betsy simply smiled at how fascinated they were by her abilities, her mental bolts in particular. She watched Pietro hold his head, as it did not knock him out. Suddenly she realized there was lack of movement around them. Her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the scene.

"Where'd the rest of them go?" She asked to no one in particular, barely audible. Everyone else looked around and saw the only ones they could see were the fallen Avalanche and Quicksilver. Even Toad had vanished.

"We sure showed them!" Bobby said proudly. Seeing the look Betsy gave him, his smile faded. 

Siryn's eyes were closed and she was concentrating hard, all the others began to notice, but they didn't dare say a word. Without even opening her eyes she lifted a hand and pointed to a small alleyway to the left. Betsy and Sunspot crept quietly in that direction. He scaled a building wall and she searched on the ground. Betsy's eyes were having trouble adjusting in the darkness when suddenly the two dumpsters down that way came to life and started moving towards her.

"Where are you Witch?!? Show yourself!!" She shouted, dodging a dumpster every now and then. Betsy, even though she was in motion, could focus her mind. The only problem was she might not recognize the thoughts in Wanda's head, therefore she'd be unable to pinpoint her. Then, it was like a prick in her mind, an instinctual sense. Leaping into the air, she grabbed onto a drainpipe to catch herself in the air and through the darkness spotted some movement. "There you are." She thought silently to herself. She swung herself down right next to Wanda, but she was prepared. Wanda sent a hex bolt Betsy's way, making her freeze up and become defenseless.

On the rooftop Sunspot saw this, but before he could come to the rescue Toad leapt out from nowhere and kicked him in the side. He rolled off and was dangling, his hands barely gripping the gutter. He got ready to power up but then noticed that the sun had disappeared behind a storm cloud. He was stuck.

"Look! Up there!" Jubilee shouted as she shot fireworks at Toad who kept jumping up and down, dodging the attack.

"Come ON Sam, get up! You could knock him off the roof." Bobby yelled as he ran up to the entrance of the alleyway. When he looked back, expecting to see Cannonball there saw nothing but air. He had barely sat up and looked slightly dizzy. "Okay…" He mumbled to himself "Maybe not." Iceman shot an ice beam right at Wanda but she was prepared this time and, multitasking, she repelled his powers as well. Luckily he too was prepared this time and dove out of the way before he was frozen by his own beam. All the others remaining could see the pleading look Betsy gave them all. For some reason she thought of, she needed her powers.

"Hey…." Siryn's mind just clicked on. "Jubilee! Sunfire! You guys focus your attacks on the Scarlet Witch, then that should distract her enough for me too close in and blast her ears." Both of them nodded, determinedly. "You too Iceman."

Carrying out the plan, those three began attacking randomly, making sure to keep Wanda's hands full. Siryn flew into the sky behind Wanda and filled her lungs with air, ready to let out a scream. Behind the three remaining recruits, Toad, Blob and Boom Boom sneaked up to attack. Betsy knew their mistake from the beginning but had no way to communicate it to them. Good tactics would mean NOT leaving your backsides unprotected. Then suddenly out of nowhere…

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" An earsplitting scream rang into the air, her own ears were pounding but so were Wanda's and she was forced to release Betsy's powers because of the pain.

"Think clearly. Think clearly. Think clearly." Betsy repeated over and over to herself but Siryn's abilities were way too overpowering and it drowned out her own thoughts. The only way to communicate to the other Recruits that the Brotherhood was ready to attack was by continuously pointing at them. Finally Iceman turned his head, ears still covered and saw three of them cowering and doing the same. 

While all this was going on, Sunspot lost his weak grip because of the scream and plummeted to the ground. Fortunately he landed in a dumpster filled to the rim and so nothing was injured, he would just smell bad.

Every chance they got Iceman, Sunfire and Jubilee would send out some of their powers which slowly subdued the remainders of the Brotherhood. Of course, technically, Siryn's scream subdued them plenty already.

The tides had indeed turned and the New Recruits were winning. Even though some sustained injuries. Betsy was relieved she had arrived in time and succeeded; however, their triumph was short-lived. Screams pierced the air from bystanders as they began running every which way. Everywhere, there were road signs, traffic lights, and light posts bending and moving from magnetic influence. Then walking in to view came five mutants. One was coated in metal rather than skin from head to toe, another was surrounded by a twister of fire that swirled out a flame-thrower on his back. Another wore a trench coat and had with him a long pole and a deck of cards. The only female among them had long blonde hair, wore a white halter-top dress that reached her thighs with tall white high-heeled boots, and a billowing white cape at her shoulders. The last was Magneto, taking the lead.

Iceman, like the others, could do nothing but stare, thinking nothing but "oh no, reinforcements." Yes they were a rebellious bunch who rarely abided by the rules and avoided learning but they knew this much, that they were no match for someone like Magneto and apparently his handpicked group of allies. The fleeting sense of dread within Betsy came back full force as she wasted no time.

"Professor, I am sorry for my actions but… We need your help!" She sent the thought a long way, her hope was that she wasn't too frustrated to fail.

Please review. It isn't much to ask for.


	7. a search mission

Kitty padded around the mansion, peering in to every single room. She strolled down the bedroom hall and glanced through every door. Having to phase her head through some, but finding out the hard way that the door was locked for a reason.

"Some people are so rude!" She thought to herself. "They don't need to bite my head off." She continued searching the mansion up and down, until she had annoyed two people long enough. In the next room she entered, Scott and Jean confronted her.

"Just, what are you doing?" Asked Scott, raising an eyebrow.

"What?!?" She retaliated innocently.

"You've been pacing around for almost an hour--"

"--We just want to know what you're up to." Jean cut Scott off because annoyance had risen in his voice.

"It's not like it's some big secret. I was just looking for Bobby." Scott and Jean had reactions that were a mixture of shock and concern.

"Iceman?" Jean asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"That's why you've been searching all this time?" The irritation he had towards Kitty had evaporated.

"Yeah, like, I can't find him anywhere." She paused though, noticing their faces. "Wait, you--you didn't know? I mean Jean I thought at least you--I mean you're psychic after all."

"Kitty, I don't but into other people's thoughts unless there's good reason." Kitty softened her accusing stare, she didn't mean to insult her in any way. "You know?" Jean began, reverting the conversation back. "Come to think of it I haven't seen Bobby for a while."

"That's why I keep looking cause I think I just somehow keep missing him. Usually he's the center of attention." Kitty had been looking for him for so long that she had even forgotten why. Now her mind was set on finding the usual, in plain sight, Bobby.

"I should be looking to this as an upside, no one to follow us around. Except this is totally unlike the Iceman to disappear from sight without a word of it to anyone." Scott stated aloud.

"Come on, Scott, you know Bobby. He's bound to have left a trail, we just have to find it." Jean said with confidence. 

"You can't find him with your telepathy?"

"I've already tried, there must be something blocking his signal. Kitty, you've asked everyone?"

"Well… no. Not exactly." Both had questioning looks on their faces. "Well you were the only ones I've talked to."

"Then **maybe** someone else has seen him. You think?" Scott was becoming agitated while some sense of foreboding lay in his stomach, but he dismissed it as caution.

"I'll go talk to Jubilee, Bobby will either be with her or just been with her. I don't think I've seen those two apart for more than a moment." Kitty ran off, passing through a couple walls as shortcuts.

Both Jean and Scott glanced at each other and smiled, but just then they heard a familiar growl which caused heir faces to fall. "Logan." they said in unison.

"Hey, Logan." Scott said evasively when the Wolverine entered the room. He did NOT have a happy look on his face.

"What's it to ya one-eye?" Both students noted that something intense must have happened to put Logan in this kind of mood.

"Did something happen?" Asked Jean, worried to see him this on edge.

"No, that's the problem." He saw their confused looks and continued. "Darn newbies didn't show." He snarled. What scared them most was that he wasn't yelling it was just pure anger.

"The New Recruits weren't there for their session?" Scott began asking as Jean stood on the sidelines, thinking.

"Not one."

"But… Lifeguard--"

"Was there. Even though I told her she was exempt from the rest of today's training." Both teenagers eyebrows almost flew off their faces at this.

"You, Logan, let someone off early?" Nothing in him phased at this remark.

"That's right 'Cyke', she's the hardest worker in the bunch. And when I say the bunch that means x-men included. Now if you'll excuse me," he didn't allow Scott or Jean time to comment. "I've got some kids to punish." Then, right there Jean thought of something.

"Hey Logan," he stopped and turned his head to look. "You haven't seen Bobby anywhere have you?" his lip curled and his eyes narrowed.

"No and I better not, for his sake. That Ice-cube…" he trailed off as he glanced down at his foot, remembering how that clown had frozen it. Logan turned to go leave when a pair of footsteps came through the wall.

"Oh good, you're still here. I couldn't find Jubilee anywhere! Figures, if Bobby's nowhere then Jubilee would also be nowhere." She stopped when she saw Logan, and he whipped around.

"What'id ya say half-pint?"

"Oh, he--hey Logan, didn't see you there." Kitty said, not looking him in the eye.

"Hmmmm… 'Iceman' missing, and somehow at the same time the Recruits disappear as well? I'm thinking this is any thing but coincidence." By the looks on the other three's faces they agreed.

"That's Bobby, but I always assumed he's where the action is--" Kitty began.

"--Ah think you're right an' that's exactly where he is!!" An anxious voice shouted. They saw her come running from the living room.

~Earlier~

"Gawd, it is so boring aroun' here!" Rogue said aloud to herself. "Ah cahn't believe Ah'm actually wishin' for the out of ordinary to happen!" She felt so restless, there needed to be some action. After pacing in circles around her room she quickly exited and glanced out every window she passed. "Nothin'." She started walking downstairs. There wasn't a single sound that could be heard except for her own footsteps.

"Ugh! Ah need somethin' to do."

She walked into the library and scanned the shelves of books. She wasn't looking for anything in particular. In fact, all she was doing was looking at the shelves, not for a book. She recited the book titles that she walked past, " Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Black Stallion, Brave New World, Charlotte's Web, The Count of Monte Cristo, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, The Odyssey…" 

She took a few steps backward and pulled out Brave New World from the shelf. She walked over to a table sat down, propped her legs up and started to read. She hadn't been reading two minutes when she threw the book behind her in frustration. 

"Urg! I give UP! I just need **something** to do!." She got up and exited the library, leaving the book on the floor. She walked into the living room and flopped down onto a couch. She picked up the remote laying on the nearby coffee table.

"Maybe some TV will pass the time."

She flipped it on and started channel surfing. "No, no, no, no. There's never anything good on at this time of day." She picked up the TV guide as her thumb kept on flipping the channels and she briefly listened to some sort of sports talk, soap operas and infomercials. Then she stopped flipping as she spotted an interesting article in the guide. The TV had stopped on a news channel. She could faintly hear what the news reporter was saying.

"We are confident that this case will be solved and the killer caugh--- This just in, a disturbance downtown has been brought to our immediate attention. It seems to involve these alleged mutants that we have been hearing about recently. We got live to Ernie in the sky with live footage of these mutants in combat."

Rogue heard the word mutants and immediately looked up, casting the TV guide aside. She watched in horror as she saw Jubilee, Shiro, Sam, Theresa, and Roberto, lead by non other than the Iceman, Bobby Drake, joined by Betsy, facing off with the Brotherhood and… losing. The vigorous battle was joined by five other mutants, one being Magneto.

"This only proves that mutants are very real. The only questions remaining are what threat they pose and just how many exist."

It had switched back to the reporter, still showing the fight with picture in picture. However, Rogue had already left. She was searching for **someone** to tell this to. She heard voices up ahead and went on in that direction. It sounded like… Logan and there was Jean and Scott as well. She stood, hidden, and listened. Then she heard Kitty's voice.

"Oh good, you're still here. I couldn't find Jubilee anywhere! Figures, if Bobby's nowhere then Jubilee would also be nowhere." She stopped when she saw Logan, and he whipped around.

"What'id ya say half-pint?"

"Oh, he--hey Logan, didn't see you there." Kitty said, not looking him in the eye.

"Hmmmm… 'Iceman' missing, and somehow at the same time the Recruits disappear as well? I'm thinking this is any thing but coincidence." By the looks on the other three's faces they agreed.

"That's Bobby, but I always assumed he's where the action is--" Kitty began. Rogue listened and knew she had to tell them, that was her original intent. She would not hold back any longer.

"--Ah think you're right an' that's exactly where he is!!" She shouted as she came into view. "Onle thang is that the action ain't here." She motioned for the others to follow her. Logan was the most intrigued. All of them could hear a news report on as they entered the living room. "Raight there!" She pointed at the television screen that displayed a struggle between the recruits and the Brotherhood. Then they saw Magneto. All any of them could do was stare.

"Hmm…" started Logan in a low growl. "Well, looks like I'll have to wait to teach them the lesson they'll never forget," he snarled, " 'cause first we need to save their butts."


	8. here comes the cavalry

Iceman, like the others, could do nothing but stare, thinking, "oh no, reinforcements." Yes they were a rebellious bunch who rarely abided by the rules and avoided learning but they knew this much, that they were no match for someone like Magneto and apparently his handpicked group of allies. The fleeting sense of dread within Betsy came back full force, as she wasted no time.

"Professor, I am sorry for my actions but… We need your help!" She sent the thought a long way, her hope was that she wasn't too frustrated to fail.

~ ~ ~

Professor Xavier sat in Cerebro, monitoring activity in a very wide range. Although visibly working, his mind was on anything but that. He was able to relax in his powers as his mind traveled near and far. He could sense many different emotions among his students, but it wasn't just them. The instructors too. Both Wolverine and Storm were anything but relaxed.

"Hmmm…. I better check, in a more humane way, on how the students are doing." He began to roll out of Cerebro and had almost exited when it happened.

"professor… Professor---PROFESSER!?!" Hearing this he held his head in agony as the thoughts echoed within his mind. "I'm sorry… actions but--need--help!!"

"Betsy! Control yourself. Focus your thoughts and don't let them control you." He thought projected. "Betsy? Betsy?!?" He realized he had lost touch, but it wasn't because of Betsy. Some sort of outside force blocked both of their powers, but who or what was yet to be determined. Then he focused his mind on the institute. "All X-men, come to the meeting room immediately; this is urgent!" Even Heather and Jamie heard the mental message projected but made no move towards where all the others were headed. "Lifeguard, Multiple, your help will be needed as well. Come quickly."

~Meanwhile~

The Recruits had barely picked up the pieces when the fight became more intense than they could handle. The guy with the flame-thrower on his back began shooting out streams of fire that moved on his command. The two streams combined to form a large charging bull that began chasing Iceman, Sunfire and Jubilee.

"This is SO not how I wanted this to go!" Shouted Jubilee, beginning to really panic.

"Lets try splitting up," began Sunfire, "it'll be more difficult to attack each of us at once." They agreed and so Sunfire kept going straight, Iceman took a sharp left and Jubilee took a rounded right. Iceman spun on his heel in an about face.

"JUBILEE!!" The flaming bull was chasing **her.**

"Do something!" She shouted, running out of breath. So, Iceman iced up and shot a beam of ice from each hand at the bull. Little by little he was freezing it but it wasn't fast enough.

"You know what?!?" Bobby said, turning towards none other than the mutant Pyro. "Take THIS!" He redirected his beams of ice on him, freezing the pyromaniac solid and ceasing the manipulating flames to move. After finishing, he ran towards Jubilee who had fallen to her knees. "Hey, you alright?" His voice was soft and faint, a large contrast to the one he used for yelling at Pyro, and a large contrast to his normal tone of voice. Jubilee did not answer his question, she merely held her face in her hands.

"This is all my fault!!" She wailed, close to tears. "If I hadn't started it, none of this would have happened and we wouldn't be fighting for our lives right now."

"This **isn't** your fault Jubes!" He was squatting next to her and held her close to him with his arms. She shivered at his touch. "Oh, sorry." He said, realizing he was still iced up. Reverting to his normal form he held her closer still. Bobby hated to see Jubilee like this, one of his best friends and all he could do was hold her. Actually just doing that wasn't all that bad. He liked the way it felt with her in his arms.

Betsy, while in combat, saw Bobby and Jubilee over there in their moment only able to think "ugh, can't they fight now and do that later?!? We're fighting for our lives here and all they can do is hug!" She was having just a 'field day' with the infamous White Queen. The only woman on Magneto's team but undoubtedly the oldest of four, appearing to be in her early twenties.

"You, X-man, are no match for me!" Emma shouted as her thoughts began echoing in Betsy's head, completely breaking her focus. Being such a powerful, early-developed psionic made Emma Frost capable of blocking the Professor from most of their activities. Betsy lost all concentration and thought as the White Queen easily over powered her.

The remaining recruits, Cannonball, Sunspot, Siryn and joinging them, Sunfire were up against the entire Brotherhood, Magneto, and his two other Acolytes, Remy Lebeau and Peter Rasputin otherwise known as Gambit and Colossus. With nine against four the odds were definitely not in favor of the x-kids. Cannonball was doing **some** damage but not enough. He had rammed into Avalanche, Toad, and Gambit but then made the mistake of running into Colossus who stopped him and threw him into a wall. Sunspot was no use for now, for the sun was deeply hidden behind the clouds. Sunfire could now at least do some damage as long as Pyro stayed frozen.

Siryn was panicking. She flew in frantic circles, dodging every single opponent with the look of fear plastered on her face. She looked back and forth, first seeing the Brotherhood advancing on her friends, then seeing the White Queen mentally zapping Betsy, at last seeing Bobby and Jubilee (still hugging) who had not noticed Pyro had unfrozen and was advancing on them. It was too much. Magneto was throwing everything he had along with Gambit, neither relenting alongside their allies the Brotherhood. Pyro was about to ambush the oblivious Iceman and Jubilee.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" A scream ripped through the air causing all of them to cease their movement and concentration. Siryn was not about to worry about control now, for her teammates were in danger. The scream reached about five miles around meaning that anyone within that distance could hear it full power. Although such a simple ability it was quite formidable. Unless they were deaf or sonic not even a mutant could withstand the strain. There **was** an exception though, Betsy. If she could focus her mind enough she could actually make herself unaware of the earsplitting sound around her. 

Betsy created a psychic sheath around her body and leapt in attack at the White Queen. Siryn's song did not last long enough; the Scarlet Witch had managed to fire a hex bolt at her. Emma easily countered the next attack Betsy launched as their fight ensued.

Bobby and Jubilee's ears were recovering, as they were still oblivious to Pyro behind them.

"You okay?" Bobby asked. She only nodded before she looked up and noticed Pyro advancing. Without even thinking, she shot a powerful stream of fireworks over Bobby's shoulder, surprising Pyro **and** Iceman. This time it was she who saved them both.

"Are **you** okay?" She asked him, a little breathless. He was on the verge of a smile when a startling explosion put both him and Jubilee on edge. Looking around, they saw the Cajun one throwing, not his charged cards he had been before, but any sort of rubble of any size. Several bricks were hurled at Siryn but, launching himself, Cannonball intercepted them and wasn't even hurt. Since in that state he is near impenetrable.

Sunfire and Sunspot had their hands full against Colossus, Magneto, Boom Boom, and Quicksilver, especially since Sunspot was currently deprived of his strength.

Avalanche had made his way to the seemingly 'intimate' Bobby and Jubilee and launched an attack. Of course it wasn't **just** focused on them but a couple surrounding buildings as well. He was achieving all the wreckage he wanted until, for some reason, the rumbling earth died down and almost stopped. Not knowing what had happened, he distracted himself by tackling the currently stationary Cannonball.

On the roof of one of the taller nearby buildings stood a teenage girl, retracting an outstretched arm. There was nothing particularly unusual about her except for her long green hair that flowed down her back.

On the streets below, Magneto was doing the most destruction, as in, he was tearing apart their very surroundings to keep some 'viscous' bystanders from interfering with their 'personal' matters.

Avalanche had resumed rocking the ground, as it became easier like it had been beforehand. The major earthquake even affected Siryn, who was grounded because Wanda still bound her powers. Iceman and all the Recruits now felt helpless with Gambit, Boo Boom and Pyro bombarding them while Lance rocked the ground they walked on.

All of them were wiped of energy, not able to even defend themselves. Lance was almost laughing his head off at the fun he was having and his buddies only encouraged him.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he felt a hand come up from behind and grab his face. The very familiar sensation of his energy being drained was thrust upon him.

"Thanks fer th' boost 'Avalanche'!" Rogue said in a mocking voice with a smirk as she watched him collapse to the ground.

The tremors had ceased for a moment only to begin again, but focused on the ground beneath Magneto's teams. It happened so fast that no one realized what had occurred until they saw it was Rogue rocking the ground. Those who could fly rose into the air, Siryn, Sunfire and Magneto.

Magneto, getting himself together, decided to rip a light post out of the ground to wrap it around Rogue and trap her. He was closing in when a narrow red beam shattered the metal into too many pieces. Cyclops came into view, followed by the rest of the X-men. Even Xavier was there but he was inside the Blackbird, away from the heat of the battle.

"Hey bub!" Growled Wolverine, "you mess with some of us, you mess with all of us!" At that, he unsheathed both sets of his adamantium claws as all the others also prepared to attack.


	9. the plot thickens

Authors NOTE: Hey Rogue151, thanks for always reviewing. Any idea how to attract more readers to this fic? Should I rewrite the summary (personally I think I wrote it poorly).

A moment of silence existed that seemed to last forever as every second the tension rose between the teams having, what seemed, a stare down. Both sides were ready for battle. Storm and Jean were hovering high above and below them were Sunfire, with a flame on each hand, and Siryn, all four ready for and to attack. Multiple, after a hard nudge in the ribs from Lifeguard, had split himself into six Jamies. Lifeguard was coated in plates of gold metal and her eyes were glowing as a few numerous abilities were taking place within her. Those who had started the fight were facing off as well, sided with the X-men of course. Iceman was iced up, a couple fireworks crackled in Jubilee's palms, Betsy held her arms at her sides and both hands balled into fists as the right hand had a glowing pink knife surrounding it. Now that Storm had arrived, a small opening was present in the clouds as Sunspot powered up. 

The Brotherhood and Acolytes were just as ready, with the exception of the currently unconscious Avalanche. Gambit held a glowing card in each hand, Colossus was still coated in metal, Pyro was wielding twisters of fire straight into the air, and Wanda's hands glowed, ready to fire hex bolts. An orb that was a magnetic field surrounded Magneto, and Boom Boom now had a handful of time bombs. The others, Toad, Blob, Quicksilver and the White Queen were already ready.

Rogue, again, took the initiative and stretched her arms forward. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as the ground beneath the opposing side rumbled. Wanda, not wanting that to start again, attacked her with a hex bolt. It only lasted for a second as Siryn began to scream once more. Unfortunately for her, a couple others were ready for this particular assault and Toad slimed her; that made her unable to even open her mouth. This was only the start.

Iceman and Jean took on Pyro and Colossus, going back and forth. If Iceman froze one then the other would break them out in a matter of seconds. Jean was able to protect herself and Iceman as every now and then she would throw them backward.

Cyclops was attempting to subdue Blob but wasn't very successful, even with help from Cannonball. Sunfire was going back and forth between that fight and the one going on against Magneto. This was the most focused part of the attack with Storm, Lifeguard, Sunfire, Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler against him. Shadowcat and Nightcrawler were more of the defensive side and were either phasing or teleporting people or objects away. Storm was careful not to cause any downpours because otherwise Sunfire's attack would be useless. She was using winds and icy temperatures to subdue him, Sunfire was hurling huge fireballs, and Lifeguard was generating sparks of electricity that she had just developed. Even with five against one, Magneto was doing quite well. Everyone had to dodge flying metal debris that was spinning around them.

Not too far off the Wolverine was tangling with the Cajun. Whenever he got a chance, Gambit would charge up a card and throw it into Logan's face to distract him. This did not put Wolverine out of the game; he was just getting warmed up.

Quicksilver, Boom Boom and a slightly distracted Toad were facing off with those who were left, Multiple, Jubilee and a currently power-deprived Sunspot. Quicksilver danced circles around the six Multiples who were trying to tackle him but failing sorely. Boom Boom was generating one time bomb at a time and tossing one at Jubilee then another and another, keeping her on her toes. Jubilee was only able to throw spurts of fireworks, which was no more affective than a light show because they didn't have enough force.

"I grow weary of this!" Emma shouted, "It ends… **now**!" She let loose a mental bolt of psionic energies, and hit Betsy head-on. Betsy closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she used her mind to hold back the attack, but she was fading fast. There was some sort of automatic rivalry between the White Queen and Betsy, almost instinctual. They had resumed their battle after the others had arrived, and the inexperienced recruit was still losing. "It is impossible to resist, small one! My powers are too far advanced for your trivial ones. All you are doing is delaying the inevitable." She smiled as she said this with most certain confidence, for it was true that Emma was a powerful psionic.

"Fine then. If you play to your strengths…" Betsy said with difficulty "then, I'll play to MINE!!" At that she leapt forward to lay on some of her moves she learned when training with Logan, starting with a kick in the gut. That was the only move that worked though because the next moves Betsy performed, a remarkable set of jabs and kicks, were ineffective. The White Queen's skin had a different air about it, almost as if it had crystallized. This was the other of her powers, turning her skin into a diamond hard substance at will. Betsy could only stare, overwhelmed by the fact that her attack could not affect her opponent. Frost returned to normal and hit Betsy with another psychic bolt.

Up in the Blackbird, Xavier watched his students battling against Magneto's troops. He did not want it to come to this, a fight instead of peace, but he had no choice. Some of them he knew had the power to protect themselves, and just couldn't or wouldn't tap into it for their own reasons. He saw Betsy down there fighting against the teenaged White Queen and knew it was quite an equal fight, but Betsy just hadn't used her full power yet. Wolverine was doing quite fine, his usual; he was impressed with Rogue taking the initiative to level out the playing field. Lifeguard was struggling, Xavier knew that she had the potential except she did not have the best handle on her abilities yet, especially in stressful situations. He never expected that his New Recruits would have to go into battle so soon.

Rogue was running around, dodging Wanda's powers as much as she could while trying to get to Siryn.

"Ah've got to get that slime off her face." Rogue thought to herself. Just that one thought was enough to distract her and once again Wanda held her with a hex bolt. Very slowly Rogue walked forward and got closer and closer to the Scarlet Witch. She reached out her hands, inches from her face when a whip of wind hit her and she found herself about a hundred feet away, but that was not a gust of wind, it was none other than Quicksilver. Knowing his sister's power he did NOT want them to be used against him and his teammates. Regrettably, he realized a little too late that his bare hand had brushed against the back of her hand where her gloves did not cover. Needless to say that the skin contact lasted long enough to knock him unconscious. Now ignoring Wanda, Rogue began running in a tight circle around Pyro, causing him to be suspended in the air by a twister that she made.

This battle went back and forth, Magneto, X-men, Magneto, X-men, the upper hand being tossed about. Every now and then the others could not help but look upon the fight between Betsy and the White Queen, and Betsy was definitely not the one who was winning. Quite bruised, she still put up a fight, never giving into the psionic blasts that bombarded her. For the third time Emma hardened herself to defend from physical attack. Then she returned to her normal state and fired another psionic blast.

"Wait a minute…" Betsy whispered under her breath. She realized something but didn't form it into coherent thoughts so that her opponent would not pick them up. With a look of determination Betsy lunged, once again, for the White Queen. She hardened and Betsy felt like she hit was hitting a boulder. While she kept her physical attacks going and sustaining the toll it took on her hands, she than shot out her own psionic blast. Emma screamed in agony and gripped her head in pain, as her body automatically returned to its normal state. Betsy had realized that while in her rock solid state she could not use her psychic abilities, putting her at a vulnerable state. "Take that, **'your highness'**." She replied as she gave Emma a kick in the side, making her roll over onto her back.

Suddenly, Betsy felt some sort of foreign prick in her mind, a presence of something or someone that had not been in the vicinity before. She was not the only to feel it. Jean had placed her telekinesis on pause as she focused on this… sensation. The Professor also felt it, as did the pained White Queen. To the psychics, what seemed like long hours was only mere moments and before they knew it…

"Alright, everybody freeze!" A dictating voice shouted as the sound of dozens of guns cocking filled the air. All of those in battle looked around to see that many police squads, swat teams, and more and surrounded them and carried heavy artillery. "Now, all you mutants come quietly and nobody will die!"


	10. man vs mutant

"Funny. I thought the words were 'come quietly and nobody will get hurt.' " Wolverine growled, not liking one bit the way these government agents were acting

"What makes you think we will come with you at all?" Magneto asked firmly. "The way I see it is the only reason we would come with you was if you had an advantage over us, which I can clearly see you don't." All the mutants, regardless of their team, grouped together like a herd of any animal does to protect their own. The way they were positioned, everyone had their backs covered by someone.

"Surrender now, or we WILL open fire!!" The sergeant yelled.

"I would like to see you try!!" Magneto shouted as his fingers pulsed.

"Fire away!!!" All of them pulled the triggers but not a single one issued a bullet. They tried over and over again but because they were metal it was an easy job for the Master of Magnetism.

All the others stood defiantly facing the agents who now pulled out tasers. Each standing side by side against the same foe, disregarding the fights they had been in prior to this. Magneto next to Storm, Siryn next to Toad, Cyclops next to Blob, Betsy next to the White Queen, Wolverine next to Gambit, Iceman next to Pyro and so on and so forth. The agents began to rush them as each began whipping out their powers.

Toad slimed a couple and then Blob rammed into them. Cyclops blasted a couple weapons and vehicles, careful not to hurt the people. Gambit tossed charged card after charged card and Boom Boom tossed time bomb after time bomb. Rogue began rocking the earth but not as strongly as she had before.

"Wha?!? It's fadin' fast. Ah cahn't git this out full power no more!!" Rogue yelled as she ducked to dodge some weapons firing. As she spoke, Avalanche regained consciousness. No one needed to fill him in, in order to know what was going on and what he needed to do. He had heard what Rogue had said.

"Not to worry, I'll take care of that!" the ground which was barely rumbling now shook full force as several large cracks separated them from the government people. Jean, like Scott, not wanting the people to get hurt used her telekinesis to protect them from Lance's rocks. Kitty so far had no use, but then noticed a bit distant from where they were was an unconscious Pietro from when he and Rogue touched, unwittingly.

"Someone do something!" She yelled as she began running in that direction. So far nothing had hit him yet but it was bound to do so soon if nobody got him out of there. Unable to simply drag him by his hands, she barely got a grip around his waist and struggled to heave his figure out of the crossfire. Jean used her telekinesis to help just in time to dodge a round of bullets. Her and Kitty looked upward at Magneto to see him struggling to hold back everything, the bullets, the guns, the vehicles and holding it for this long was tiresome. His powers were beginning to fade from holding them for so long. Kitty still hung onto the unconscious Pietro as she crouched to avoid getting shot. 

The three telepaths stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder, and grasped each other's hands firmly so they could combine their minds into one. This was the most affective move as they were able to keep any of these outsiders from coming closer than 100 yards, making it much harder to aim from a farther distance, especially if they can't think.

Siryn was struggling to scream but Toad's slime still held her mouth shut tight. Toad was trying to wrench it off her face by holding one arm around her neck in a headlock and the other was trying to pull the sticky goo off of her.

"Man, the irony. If I hadn' done this then you could be screamin' their heads off right now." Siryn only glared at him. Obviously it made no difference whether he was sorry for it now because if they didn't get it off then something might go wrong and they'd all get captured.

"Stand back." Cyclops said, noticing their predicament, lifting a finger to his visor. Siryn's eyes widened in panic as she stuck out her hands straight out as if to say 'don't you do that or then I'll have to pick my face up off the ground.'

"Ya know? I'm jus' guessing but I think she doesn't want you to do that." Toad told him.

"Well maybe if you hadn't slimed her in the first place--"

"How was I supposed to know this would happen?!?" He gestured his hands all around, meaning all the government agents now rushing them. The two went on bickering. Iceman spotted this situation and came over, walking right past Toad and Cyclops.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head!" He said with his trademark grin. Siryn's expression became a little more relaxed at the sight of Bobby. He then outstretched an arm and froze her solid.

"Wha--?!?" Both Toad and Cyclops whipped around at this, both their faces saying 'why the hell did you do that?'.

Iceman then raised an arm and karate chopped the ice figure near the head and all of the ice crumbled and fell to the ground. Once unfrozen, Siryn's face was slime-less. All of them turned their attention towards the battle, which had begun to worsen.

"I think it's time for a little boost for our side." Siryn said slyly, rubbing her hands together. Without even taking a step into the air but floating upwards from where she stood, she flew so she was the highest above the scene. She took in a deep breath, every X-man or Brotherhood member who saw her immediately covered their ears, and, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!" Let out her highest and loudest scream to pierce the ears of their foes. Any weaponry that operated by computers were disabled from the sound pitch. It made Siryn feel good to do this much damage. Her scream was so deafening that it woke the unconscious Quicksilver from his 'sleep'.

"Theresa, it is good that your power helps the team but you must not overuse it." Professor X's voice echoed in the depths of her mind. "Your power is both helping and hurting. Yes it distracts those who are attacking us but is disables the remainders of our team. Use it when needed."

"But how will I know when its needed?" She thought back.

"It is out of instinct that you will know when to start and when to stop."

"So now would be time to stop?" She thought back as she lowered her pitch and slowly faded her voice out. This gave them the chance they needed. Storm flew even higher than Siryn was and the clouds began to darken to a black. Rain began pouring down like sheets of ice and lightning flashed while thunder crashed. Emma, Jean and Betsy still held their telepathic connection to hold the troops back. With this combined with the weather they were doing a much better job now.

After what seemed like forever the weather stopped and the telepaths broke their connection. The mutants looked on at the government agents who were practically in a heap and totally worn out. The one who seemed to be in charge raised a radio to his lips.

"Confirmed. Bring in the operative." He said, while he gave the group of mutants a look that could kill.

To be continued….


	11. we've seen the enemy and she is us

The sound of dozens of helicopters filled the air. The mutants looked up, blinking the rainwater out of their eyes to see military choppers full of swat teams heading their way.

"Perhaps you did not learn your lesson properly!" Magneto said with an air of annoyance. The looks on his Acolytes' faces said they agreed. "Maybe I should have been more strict in teaching you why you do not mess with mutants!" He raised his hands threateningly and was surrounded by a barely visible magnetic field. Gambit followed suit and whipped out two charged cards. Pyro surrounded the group with a ring of fire as protection, and Colossus and the White Queen suited up. Colossus became covered in metal and Emma became diamond hard.

"I think it is you mutant-- filth that underestimates us. You think you're so far superior with super powers but we WILL conquer you. The human race is best at wiping 'rare' species off the face of the earth and that is just what we'll do with you! We learned our lesson long ago; it is time that you learned **YOURS**!!!" Suddenly a single figure leapt out of the closest helicopter and landed between the band of mutants and the ring of government ops. It was a girl, barely a woman. She did not look like she belonged to the government. "Agent Winters, you're up." She smiled and it was almost creepy at the phony pleasant look of it.

"Oh he's quite right you know? It is time you mutants got yours!!"

She stuck her arm straight out and formed her hand so it looked like a gun with only her index finger sticking out. The tip of her finger glowed gold and shot a narrow beam, the same color from it with such force and precision. It wasn't like a short blast but almost seemed unending like Cyclops' optic blast. She made a perfect shot of knocking the playing card out of both of Gambit's hands with just two blasts. The cards fell free and forced their clustered group to scatter in order to avoid injury. Agent Winters then brought her hand, still in the same position, up to her face and blew air across the tip of her index finger as if it were a real gun. Her smile now represented smugness and overconfidence, for good reason.

An annoyed expression crossed Gambit's face as he took out his entire deck of playing cards. Rogue glanced at him and for some reason felt for him, even though it was something so trivial.

"You dare mess with my own and you will feel my wrath!" Magneto told their opposition sternly. With the wave of his hand, a nearby automobile's doors were ripped off and thrown at her. By the look of it they hit her hard and Magneto made them surround her in order to trap her. Although his face showed anger, there was a certain gleam of triumph in his eyes. Before he could revel in it there was some sort of force that blew the doors apart from the inside. When the rubble cleared the mutant, called Plethora, stood there with a golden, translucent shield surrounding her like a bubble. The tips of her fingers glowed as if they were on fire.

"**No one** can stop **me**, 'Master of Magnetism.' Least of all you!!" The bubble faded away. "I generate pure physical energy from my body and I can dispose it with any amount of force. If there **is** any power in existence that can stop me, it is yet to be discovered!"

The mutants still believed there had to be some sort of weakness, so it was Jean who tried next. She tried a mental attack, soon joined by Emma. They fired a combined mental attack, boosted by Betsy. Somehow they were unable to reach her mind. They couldn't even probe her thoughts. It was as if a wall physically blocked them from reaching her mind.

This entire time, the Professor was observing the attempts. Even **he** could not reach Plethora's mind. Somehow she had an immunity to that type of power.

As if they all knew what the other was thinking, which was true for some, they all began to launch their combined attacks at not only Plethora but the other agents too, threatening them. From there, the fight ensued between human and mutant; humans led by a mutant. The irony was overpowering.

High above, the choppers were creating a wind that blew a girl's long green hair around her wildly. The same one from before, who had been watching this fight as if she were a guardian angel. Some energy crackled in the air around her, letting her know an electrical field was now present.

"How dare they!!" She thought slightly aloud to herself. "We have as much right as people do. They cannot silence us. Magneto is not right but we must still take action. None of us will go down without a fight!"

The girl flew into the air and dove downward to the battle below. She was known as Polaris, a mutant of magnetism with powers to manipulate magnetic, electrical and gravitational fields. While not the **Master** of Magnetism, she is not without power.

The battle was quite even now, like a game of tug-of-war going back and forth. However, the mutants were slowly fading. They were in smaller groups now, making it easier for troops to subdue them. Magneto was not high and mighty at all anymore, he was running out of energy. Wolverine was tussling with about 6 agents when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the mutant agent had been shooting beams all over the place and had hit the support beam of a tall building too many times. It didn't crumble, the mostly metal tower began falling onto a group of Magneto, Siryn, Cannonball Avalanche, Shadowcat and Boom Boom.

"What th-- Look OUT!!" He shouted at the top of his lungs and pointed with one clawed fist. Magneto was not able to act, as the building was seconds from crushing the lot of them. The all braced themselves, as Kitty got ready to phase (she wouldn't have gotten to anyone in time), but there was no impact. They all looked up to see a girl projecting magnetic waves that kept the building from crushing them into nothing. She was visibly struggling and attracted glances from other agents, because of her green hair. This allowed a couple hits for the good guys to keep some of the troops back.

"Eeerg… I--can't--hold--it much---longer!" Polaris mustered through a labored breath. Magneto, grateful, added his fading powers onto hers as they worked to put the building into place. It wasn't until Jean and Storm stepped in that they were able to fix it and it took Iceman and Sunfire to secure it by melting and freezing certain parts.

All over this fight was being televised and from all over mutants came to protect their 'brothers', metaphorically speaking. Magneto and the X-men were soon assisted by faces both familiar and new.

Angel flew in from NYC to help the X-men he knew well by keeping them out of danger and distracting some of the people targeting them. Spyke had heard about this battle and wasn't about to let his former teammates get squashed. He arrived and began firing bone spikes to destroy guns and nay other devices trying to be used to hurt mutants. There was a mutant familiar only to Lifeguard and that was, Slipstream, her brother. He saw her in trouble on television and came to help her out. Though he looked slightly out of place with a surfboard in hand, the one he used with his mutant power. Professor X had offered him a place with the New Mutants but he declined. A mutant appeared with the power to project rings of electric pulses from his hands and control movement of electricity with his mind; he called himself Zap.

More and more mutants came and it was hard to keep track of who was who and what powers they had. There was one mutant that was a human fireball who could throw flames as well and a girl whose body was below freezing and anything she touched would be coated in ice non-stop. Another could generate large sonic booms that were like rolls of thunder and still another who could transform sound energy into light to blind her opponents. These were only a couple of many who showed up to protect fellow mutants. They were NOT there for some fight for destruction that Magneto seemed to think. They were only there to protect, not destroy and Professor X knew that.

Troops were being brought down faster than new ones could come in and the only one undefeated so far was Plethora. She was knocking mutant after mutant out of her way. She had not lost a job yet and she wasn't going to let some meager mutants be the reason that she wasn't going to be paid her money 3.5 million dollars for every mutant brought in alive.

"I **will** get them, I can promise that!" She mumbled to herself as her rage began to take over. She plowed through a group of mutants, knocking some out, including Pyro, Jean and a couple unknown mutants. Rogue saw she was heading to where Wolverine, Gambit and Colossus were fighting off agents, back to back.

"Oh no ya don'." Rogue whispered aloud. She ran up behind her and reached out a bare hand. "Ah'm takin' you OUT!" Rogue yelled as she grabbed the back of Plethora's neck. She was surprised, no doubt about that but that doesn't mean she wasn't prepared. Rogue actually felt a shock as if her powers had bounced off and attacked her right back, somehow. Plethora turned on her heel to face Rogue who was now on one knee from the shock of pain. She could see why her power didn't work. Plethora, once again was glowing gold but at a much closer distance than her shield from earlier. It was like the shield was but it was only on the very surface of her body and her fingers were glowing again like little hot coals.

"Nice try, mutie!" She taunted.

"How can ya say that? You're a mutant too!!"

"I can say that because I'm **paid** to. I can make quite a fortune by taking you out." Giving Rogue a smug smile she turned on her heel again and ambushed Wolverine. He didn't pull his claws out in time and in a matter of seconds the formidable Weapon X known as Wolverine lay unconscious on the ground. Everyone couldn't help but stare for a moment, incredulously, at the heap that was their toughest instructor, no, the toughest mutant. Magneto himself could not believe that she took out Wolverine so easily.

"You force **me** to now take action if you wish my team harm." The voice of Professor X could be heard and he wheeled onto the scene.

"Don't deny it, Xavier," She said in an over confident voice, mockingly. "You," she pointed to him, "and all of your little 'children'--are--mine." She waved her arms, gesturing to all the other mutants. "And you!" She looked at Magneto now, "all you are is a liability to your own kind 'almighty one'." About three times as many troops now faced the mutants as when they started. She glanced over her left shoulder and then her right. "As you see, not only can I take you all down **alone** but I have unnecessary reinforcements to do some of the work for me. As of this moment… you--are--mine!" She yelled to all the mutants, then leading all the troops into a charge.


	12. the countdown

Many tranquilizer guns began firing as at least a dozen mutants were taken down in one round. Wanda had the most affective powers as she was blowing up many guns and bringing vehicles to life. With the have of her hand a large computer inside a van exploded, taking a handful of people with it. Toad and Quicksilver, working together became the decoys because no one could hit them, especially Quicksilver.

"Ha, ha! You can't catch me!" He taunted as he began running circles around a group of them, literally. They kept on shooting at empty air. Even though he was making fun out of this he did know the seriousness of the situation since Wolverine was taken out, like his father did.

Magneto and Polaris formed an unspoken alliance as they combined their powers for an attack, throwing metal everywhere. Every now and then a magnetic bolt was shot from her hand at a group of people. As mutants they may have had a head start altogether but their opposition was relentless and the sides began tipping in their favor.

The next one taken down was Cyclops because all he had been doing was holding the unconscious Jean in his arms trying to wake her up. He was an easy target and both he and Jean now lay unconscious on the ground. Rogue saw them get Scott and ran to protect him from the agents that rushed towards him to collect him and Jean.

"No ya don'!!" She yelled as she stood between them and her unconscious teammates.

"Dispose of her." One of the agents in charge mumbled.

Thinking quickly, Rogue got rid of her gloves and reached down and touched both Scott and Jean's faces. It wasn't for a long period of time but enough to have some powers. These agents were yet to learn what Rogue's power was; they only knew everyone else's. 

"If you can' use 'em then someone should." She could tell that by the looks they gave each other that they were wondering what she was doing. "Yall wanna know what mah power is? Mah power **IS** their power!!" At that her eyes began to glow red and she fired a force beam, knocking a couple of them on their behinds while the others she threw away with telekinesis. She wiped her hands against each other as if she got rid of them with ease, which she did. She glanced at Cyclops. "That one was fer you." She whispered.

Sunspot had worked his way into a very tight situation. He was surrounded and the sun was smothered by many storm clouds.

"I'm doomed." He told himself looking aloud. Without sun for this long of a time was NOT good for him.

"Need a hand?" A voice said from above, "Perhaps I should shed some light on this situation." It was Storm and as she said that the clouds parted as quickly as they had gathered earlier.

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" He yelled as he became his solar form with super strength. He snatched a couple guns and bent them all into circular shapes. He took two guys by the collar and threw them into two other guys. "Ahh that was easy." He said taking a deep relaxing breath. That was all he got to say though because he collapsed to the ground with a dart sticking out of his neck.

"Bobby! They got Sunspot!" Jubilee shouted as she was letting out a stream of fireworks at these guys' weapons. He was letting out a nonstop stream of ice that was freezing person after person.

"We can't let them take him!" Iceman shouted back in reply. He then stuck out his left hand that was free and froze the ground all around Roberto so no one could really get within fifteen feet of him unless they wanted to fall and brake their neck or ankle. He returned his attention to the fight he Jubilee, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat were in. All of their concentration broke when they heard what sounded like glass shattering. They looked over and saw Plethora shooting a beam that broke the ice easily and created a pathway for her. Storm then flew in and took on the agent, to protect the unconscious Sunspot. She called upon a gale of wind, rain, and lightning. She flew high in the sky above the fight.

"No one challenges ME!" Shouted Plethora as she shot five beams, on from each finger, and the force of them knocked Storm out of the sky. It was not **that** specifically that knocked her unconscious but the impact with the ground that did the job. Everyone else saw this and still began losing hope; another of theirs was down.

"Rogue!! You've got to do it!" It was Lifeguard yelling at her. Rogue looked distant. "Come one, we NEED it!!" reluctantly, she strode forward and touched Storm's face, a surge of energy was transferred at a simple tap. She then created an empathy shell around her, Storm and Sunspot as a shield. Then she raised a lightning storm and began shocking only Plethora, who sustained every blast.

"Ah don' know Heather. Ah already have Jean an' Cyclops' power. Do Ah really need Storm's?" She wasn't very sure about taking all these power as she remembered the time she went berserk with everyone inside of her fighting for control.

"Hey!" Toad chimed in, "We **need** you!! You're our only weapon!" Rogue looked at him curiously as to why he was involved in the conversation. "Hey, I care whether I live or not! An' with that power you could defend us all."

"It don' work lahke that Toad!" She snapped at him.

"Yeah it do, I seen it. So don't lie." 

Toad hopped over to Wanda who was destroying guns with her powers. He hopped over so he landed right next to her, grabbed her around the waist and took one hop to land on the top of a street light. Wanda was about to yell at him but noticed a horde of darts stream over the spot she had just been standing. Her bewildered face looked as if she was about to say thank you.

"How's about a thank you kiss?" Toad asked, closing his eyes and puckering up.

"Ugh! Go **away** Toad." She said in annoyance and disgust as she gave him a shove. He tumbled to the ground and Blob caught him by the scruff of his neck.

"You're lucky I was there Toad!" He said, dropping him to the ground. Suddenly, Blob just keeled over in pain.

"**You** weren't so lucky." Plethora said, standing over him. Toad's eyes bulged and he let out a little scream as he leapt away. He hopped right into Rogue's empathy shell, making her lose concentration. With the shield down, men began opening fire. Rogue tried to put the shield back up, but Jean's powers within her began to fade and she could no longer access them.

"Oh no." She mumbled to herself, wide-eyed as she stared at the darts heading for her. She closed her eyes, bracing for impact… but it never came. She opened her eyes and saw she was at least fifty feet above the battle. Someone was carrying her by her waist. She looked up to see a girl, maybe older than her, with dark hair and semi-dark skin.

"I saw you in a tight spot, and thought maybe you needed a lift." She said. It was obvious she was strong by the way she carried her with ease. Rogue just stared at her. The girl noticed, and replied, "Oh, I'm sorry Rogue. You can just call me 'M'." Not wanting to be rude, Rogue diverted her gaze.

Although Plethora had knocked Blob for a loop he wasn't down yet. He was the biggest and baddest of the lot of them and tougher than she had come to think. He was the only one not accompanied by another mutant and all he was using was raw power. 

"Come on, bring it ON!!" shouted Iceman as he dodged tranquilizers and kept on icing the ground beneath the feet of their shooters. "You can't touch any of us!"

"Uhhhhhh…… Iceman!" Jubilee said as she pointed to the guards who were collecting the unconscious bodies of Storm, Wolverine, Sunspot, Jean and Cyclops. Iceman's smirk was wiped off as he ducked to dodge a dart he saw out of the corner of his eyes. They both continued to stare at their friends being dragged away. Suddenly in a gust of wind they were both grabbed by the collar of their shirts and found themselves at least one hundred feet away in less than a second.

"What **would** you do without me?" Came Quicksilver's smug voice. "The both of you were about to join your 'teammates'." He nodded his head in the direction of the van now containing a fraction of the X-men.

"I don't see what **you** are so smug about!" Jubilee declared with intense dislike.

"he**LLO**! None of **my **teammates have gone down. Ya wanna know why? We're just too good!" He said all that with amazing speed. As he spoke, a huge explosion went down. All three looked up and saw someone's very LARGE form lying still on the ground.

"Ya know?" Started Bobby, "If **I** didn't know any better, I'd say you spoke too soon!" He said sarcastically. Quicksilver's face fell at this. He sped off mumbling something about how the X-men had lost more of their teammates.

"Well then that's not good for **you **either!! Seeing as a number of us has saved your sorry butts!!" Jubilee shouted after him.

Meanwhile, Magneto was trying to make the van crumble that now contained five X-men and one of his own. Unfortunately, they had anticipated Magneto would try this and the van had no metal in it whatsoever. Magneto glanced over at Charles who was fighting the troops with solely his mind. The White Queen and Betsy stood behind him for backup. Betsy had her psychic knife and Emma was diamond hard and translucent. They were his physical defense even though both had remarkable psychic abilities as well. In her diamond hard form, the White Queen is near impenetrable and could easily defend Xavier while he did a number on the attacking agents in order to hold them back.

"Astonishing powers this Xavier has." She thought to herself. "With so much power why doesn't he just force others to follow the order of a perfect world, Magneto's world. A world where mutants are not persecuted for what they are. You would think that, being the greatest mind on the planet and all, he could have what is desired when it is desired. Such a waist of so much power, I can see why Magneto opposes him." 

As the White Queen thought this, her gaze wandered over to another fight. One being fought by Colossus, Gambit and now Pyro, since Wolverine was taken out. It was pretty evened out with Gambit causing multiple explosions, Colossus fighting all of them by hand and Pyro frightening them off with rings of fire.

"Take that ya baddies!!" Pyro shouted as a tornado of fire transformed into a huge bird that hovered over the dozen agents. They were trapped and the heat was rising fast. Colossus could take the heat and fend them off through the fire but Gambit's cards could not get through with out burning up.

"Dat made Remy's attack wort'less you fiyah (fire) freak." Gambit said, annoyed as he put away his deck and leapt backwards a ways. He just stood there leaning against a nearby building, watching the fight. Apparently it was decided that the fight was already won for their side. "Dey don' nee' any help." Remy thought, taking a glance at all the different fights going on at once. He caught sight of Rogue in battle and couldn't help getting lost in his thoughts as he watched her attack with Storm and Cyclops' powers; the optic beam was slowly fading. Although he was watching her fight, that was the last thing he was thinking about in terms of Rogue. 

What sounded like a cannon going off brought his attention back to Colossus and Pyro's fight. The fiery bird was no more and two golden force beams that were very dense held Colossus and Pyro pinned to the wall, helpless. The wielder of those beams was none other than Plethora and each one was a combination of five beams. Pyro's flame-thrower was mangled and lying about thirty yards away and Colossus had reverted back to his human form.

"You thought you could win, didn't you? Well that is where your judgement went sour!" She laid on more force in her beams causing the two to go through the wall and fall to the ground unconscious. "What are you waiting for?!?" She snapped at the many agents who had been fighting against the two mutants. "Contain them!!" Gambit looked back and forth from his two teammates to Rogue who was struggling in battle. Then he quickly made up his mind.

Rogue was barely dodging attacks and even her weather control powers were now fading. She wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Just then, she collapsed from lack of energy, leaving her open to attack. Out of nowhere a Cajun came to her rescue and blew their weapons away, literally.

"Remy tought dat chere needed a lil' help, no?" He asked holding out his hand to help her up. A bewildered look crossed her face. She shook her head out of her trance and refused his hand as she helped herself up.

"An' just what do ya think yuh're doin'?" She dusted herself off and was about to yell something at him but he spoke first.

"No time fo' dat chere. Yo need t' go an' give yo' magic touch t' my mates Colosso an' Pyro ovah dere." He said that with a certain earnestness in his expression.

"Yuh can' be serious!!" She said, expecting him to say it's a joke at any minute. "Ah--Ah've already got enough power, Ah don' need tuh add more!!" A mixture of panic and anger was in her voice and on her face.

"Remy be serious when he needs t' an' dis is one o' dem times." Without warning he almost dragged her over to where they were collecting Pyro and Colossus' remains. "Now, chere!!!" He yelled as he sprung into action and began fighting off several people with his combat skills.

After a few moments, Gambit looked up and saw that she had not budged an inch from her spot and was just watching him fight and watching others take away his fallen comrades. Something in her head had to be screwy the way she stared into space, but no time to think about anything otherwise their hides would belong to that mercenary of a mutant and she'd do God knows what with the lot of them.

"ROGUE!!!" He yelled, snapping her out of it. She began moving but only reluctantly. "Dat a girl." He thought to himself as he saw her close in on those who were carrying the unconscious bodies.

"Watch it, one of the anomalies is approaching." Said one of the guards.

"Aww, come on. Ya gotta give a girl a little credit." She said as she began firing lightning from the sky. "Admit it, Ah'm much more than some 'anomaly'." She didn't actually hit them hard but it terrified them enough to distract them. "That gives me just enough time." She thought as she reached, still reluctant, and touched both mutants' faces. It was just a tiny tap like it had been with the others because the memories of herself losing control still haunted her. It was bad enough that she couldn't touch anyone, she couldn't, she wouldn't allow herself to be overrun. Therefore she was NOT going to hold on for very long. Even so, she could still feel quite strong imprints from Storm, Cyclops and Jean even though it was a tap for just a second. "Those are th' last ones." She told herself softly aloud. "No more powers." Then she coated herself in organic metal and became a good six inches taller because of it. "Good thing pyromaniac left me somethin' tuh work with." She whispered as she turned a couple small flames on the ground into large fireballs in the palm of each hand."

Most of the New Recruits including Lifeguard, Multiple, Siryn, Cannonball, and Sunfire were back-to-back facing over a dozen agents trying to take them down. Of course the sides were evened out seeing as Multiple made up the difference between the sides. There were probably ten Jamies at the least attacking, throwing themselves at their attackers and making it hard for them to aim even once.

"Lifeguard! Cover me." Sunfire shouted as she shielded him with herself which was covered in golden metal skin. With good protection he could now focus on attack as he fired orbs of heat and light to disable their weapons.

"I'll take care of that van!" Cannonball shouted as he began running towards it and became air born at an amazing speed. He didn't just hit it; he went straight through it.

"Good job! That had to get rid of a good amount of their gizmos." Siryn said. So far she had refrained from using her power because if she did it possibly hurt her team more than theirs. For the time being all she did was fly around and put the different Multiples in position. "Just great. The only thing I'm good for is a bus. Next stop, 'the sky'!" She yelled sarcastically. Siryn enjoyed when she could let loose and just scream but now was not the time.

Sunfire continued firing fireballs, which kept their opposition busy. Then, as he tired and his fireballs became smaller each time, one became huge, like a flame the size of a bus. Its heat licked the skin of the enemy as they retreated to another group of their own. The Recruits were wide-eyed, wondering what just happened. When the flame faded to a the size of a golf ball and floated over to hover over the user's palm it revealed that the answer to their question was… Rogue. She looked quite impressive with her eye sockets glowing white, her skin as metal, and holding fire in both hands.

"Rogue?!?" Lifeguard asked in amazement. "Wha--"

"It's nothin' Ah'm proud of so Ah don' wanna talk to yuh about it." That moment they exchanged comments was all that was needed. There was a sound that was like a mixture of the sound Scott's beam makes and the sound Logan's claws make when he releases them. Somewhere beyond her peripheral vision came seven thick golden beams. Each knocked into Sunfire, Cannonball, four of the Multiples and Lifeguard. All of them except for Lifeguard lay unconscious on the ground, for she had armor in her very skin and it had adapted to become tougher when anticipating the attack in a matter of seconds. Multiple called all but one of the conscious Jamies back into himself. Siryn rushed to Cannonball's aid but there was nothing she could do.

"Sam, SAM!! Come on, get up. You're skull's as hard as a rock, you can't just give up like that!" She knelt by his side and shook him, trying to wake him up. "I won't let them take you!" She declared as she rose into the sky and took a deep breath.

"Theresa!" Both Jamies shouted. "Don't do it!" He became frantic because she showed no signs of stopping at what he said. "We got to find another way!! She's immune to you, remember?!?" Siryn still held her breath but hadn't released it yet as she pondered what Multiple was telling her. He may be the youngest but she out of all the mutants in Xavier Institute was the most considerate of him, him and his actions, thoughts and opinions. She released her breath with nothing more than an exhale. Multiple could breathe now soundly. 

"Okay, so you got a plan?" She asked him, landing on the ground.

"Uhhhh…"

"Just great, and what are we supposed to do then?!?"

"Anything but scream." That was all he could come up with.

"How about fight for our lives?" Lifeguard suggested as she sprouted wings and took to the air. Siryn and Multiple didn't have to get to a fight; the fight came to them.

Rogue stood by the two unconscious Recruits and defended them. She turned sparks into flames for an offensive move and struck them with small static bolts. Storm's residual energy within her became very faint and it was now difficult to access any of her power. Many agents took a swing at her but even though she was metal it was a difficult fight for her. So she reached down thinking "I'll just give ol' Sammy a little tap an'--" but right before she made contact Cannonball woke with a start. He sat up right into her bare hand and she absorbed more of him than she meant to. Her heart was beating faster, seeing how he startled her and would have been conscious again had she not planned on touching him.

"**That** is mah last one. No more powers." She told herself sternly. 

Rogue's gaze was drawn to a fight that Boom Boom was having. She was probably facing the most agents and she was by herself. The ground was littered with the remains of dozens and dozens of guns. Every time someone brought a weapon she blew it up. They were all dancing about, dodging one of her little bombs every second like they were stepping on hot coals.

"WaHOOO!" She shouted, throwing another handful of time bombs onto the ground. "Yeah! Bada **bing** bada BOOM!!!" Several of them were now falling back for their own health. "Aww what's the matter? No one wants to play with me any more?!?" She shouted at their retreating backs. "Ha ha!" She diminished the remaining time bombs in her hands. "OW!!"

"I'll play with you!" Plethora taunted as one of her fists glowed gold. Boom Boom's brow furrowed as she threw a big time bomb at her. When it exploded it had no effect. "I'm covered by a shield! You think those can hurt me?"

"You'll be sorry you've ever messed with us!"

"The only thing I'll be sorry about is if I don't collect your little mutant hides. I may not be psychic or anything but I can see the fear in your eyes! I bet you're thinking 'She got Wolverine in seconds, so I'm doomed'. And, if you weren't thinking that already I bet you're thinking it now." Tabitha's face was emotionless, she couldn't think of any retort. "Well, you know what? You'd be right!" She let loose a blast that threw Boom Boom against a building, knocking her out. "Collect her!" She shouted as she moved on to some mutants who had only been innocent bystanders until they entered the fight. Now they were targets. "Enough games!!" She shouted over a communicator. "It is time we ended this fight! Collect the lot of them and load them into vans. No excuses!!"

A wave of agents ran like a stampede at the mutants who all tried to shield themselves, most were successful, others weren't so lucky. Magneto had joined Xavier on the ground and held off anything metal as he worked on their minds. Emma saw how Magneto almost loyally stood by the Professor and was mildly astonished. "Well," she thought. "If two enemies can work together with such ease then I can at the very least try a little harder." The White Queen grabbed Betsy's hand and without a word they combined their mental powers as they fought off others with their physical abilities (it was almost as if they could read each other's minds, hmmm…). The White Queen was defense while Betsy was offense and were near unbeatable with such amazing power.

"You know? 'Betsy' is it? This is almost boring the way they don't put up much of a fight. With both our powers no one will come near us, or **can **for that that matter." Emma said with a crystal smile. In what seemed like a blur it happened so fast, that Betsy wasn't even sure what happened until after it happened.

"Is that 'exciting' enough for you your 'queenlyness'?" Asked a voice that belonged to Plethora. Emma lay unconscious on the ground with what seemed much more than a mild concussion. "I didn't **need** to get near you to take **you** down." She said snidely as she gave her a kick and then looked up at where Betsy was standing… or where Betsy HAD been standing, for she was gone. Angrily she looked over at Magneto and Xavier teaming up and stopping the troops. "ARGH! If you want something down right you've got to do it yourself!"

"Iceman! A little help?!?" Jubilee shouted as she was surrounded by a horde of agents. In a second they were nothing but ice sculptures.

"No prob!" He said, cheerfully from his ice slide he had been moving around on. "Need a lift?" He asked holding out an icy hand to help her up.

"Oh… why not?" She took his hand and he pulled her onto his ice slide.

"Hold on tight! Time to move!!" They began sliding every which way, back and forth across the battlefield. Every now and then either or both of them would send out a blast to help others who were in a tight squeeze. After a short while they stopped on the opposite end from where they started.

"Whew! That was some ride!" Jubilee said through some out of breath laughter.

"Well you know it always **is** the greatest honor to ride with the Iceman!" he told her.

"Don't flatter yourself Bobby." She said, wiping away some tears from laughing so much.

"Aww Come on! I've got everybody's backs!!" He said puffing out his chest in some sort of 'manly' way. When he returned his gaze to Jubilee it looked like her face was about to fall off from terror. "Jubilee?" He dropped his macho act and his brow furrowed.

"Bobby… look." She pointed with a shaky finger somewhere behind him. He turned his head to see the intense struggle of Magneto and the Professor against Plethora and let me tell you the two of them were not the ones winning here. Possibly the two most powerful mutants on earth and they were beginning to bend to her will. Her force beams were no longer of physical strength but more or less heat rays. The beams radiated an intense temperature from a distance, so being directly hit by it could be fatal depending on where you're hit. The energy bore into Magneto's chest and into Charles' head. It was like everyone around them could feel their pain.

"Professor!!" Iceman shouted and shot an ice beam from that distance but once it got close enough it melted into water before it was within twenty feet of them. Rogue tried next by using pyrokinesis but what Plethora was projecting was heat not fire.

'Time for **you** to come with **us**!!" shouted Plethora as she let out one more pulse of heat that knocked Professor Xavier unconscious.

"Charles…" Magneto said in agony as he held his melted stomach in pain. "We will keep fighting for you… my friend. I know it is to end one day but not today and not like this. For we **will** prevail!!"

"Rogue! Xavier is down!" Gambit yelled across the battle to her.

"What?!?" She exclaimed as she delivered a punch and looked around. "Oh may Gawd!" She was stunned from fear as she saw him there unconscious. "We're doomed."

"Don' tawk like dat chere! You go an' give 'im a tap."

"Are yuh nuts! Ah got enough power tuh deal with."

"Gambit-- is right." Came a raspy voice. Rogue looked around and saw it was Magneto, lying on the ground, not too far away. He was beat pretty bad by the looks of it. "You have control Rogue. You must absorb his powers; they are our best chance of surviving this."

"Ah--Ah don' know."

"DO IT!" He yelled with urgency.

Trembling, Rogue went over and reached out her hand, Not only was she afraid because they had brought the Professor down but she was afraid what having his power and memories would do to her. She held her breath and got it over with. She retracted the organic metal off her fingers and touched him. A rush of thoughts and events entered her mind. It was like her brain had been suffocating until now, when it got a fresh breath of air. Only for a moment, though, for the next moment it was too much. So much power and no way to control or dispose it. She held her head in agony.

"FOCUS!" Magneto began to instruct her. "You can feel the difference between mutants and humans' minds. Force your pain upon the humans! Dump it on them as if they're garbage cans for mental anguish!"

Rogue wasn't sure what the heck he was talking about, but she **so** wanted to give someone else this pain. She closed her eyes and began trying.

"I said **focus**!!" He yelled again, seeing nothing had happened.

"Ah'm tryin'!!! It's too hard!"

"They don't care if it's too hard, she doesn't care because they'll just rip you to pieces all because it's **'too hard'**!!" Rogue's anger rose with every word he spoke. She could feel her blood begin to boil.

"EerrrrrrrrrRAAHHHHHH!!!" She screams as she forced the telepathy into submission and wielded it against every agent she could see. Rogue was breathing hard and labored.

"You see? Now you have power. With great power comes pain, with pain comes anger, and with anger comes control. **You**, Rogue, are now in control." Rogue nodded faintly, not really hearing the words he was saying. Even though she did not form the feeling into comprehensible thoughts she had some sort of dread and regret deep in her chest. She dismissed it though, for she had no time to think about it. She may have the Professor's powers but she knew she lacked his entire knowledge to use it. Even **with** his memories she still wasn't sure which ones would be useful. 'We're still doomed.' She thought to herself. Gambit motioned her to follow him into battle to help those who remained.

Magneto used all his strength and mustered to stand up. By this time Charles had been loaded into a van with other mutants. He was still confident that although it was a bumpy ride, some things had gone well for them.

Everyone looked on in fear since the greatest mind on the planet had just been brought down. Shadowcat and Nightcrawler looked on from their fight. Nightcrawler was handing from a traffic light by his tail and Shadowcat was half phased through a wall.

"What're we supposed to do now Kurt?!?" Kitty asked, beginning to lose it.

"Ther--there's no reason for losing hope Keety." Kurt said, stuttering.

"**You're** not even sure about what you're saying!" She said, tears brimming her eyes. "Without the Professor… it's hopeless." She said quietly as she became fascinated with the ground.

"WHAT?!? So, you're going to give up?!? Just like that??" Came a shrill voice that was uneven from emotion. Nightcrawler and Shadowcat looked up to see Betsy standing there with a psychic knife on one fist and watery eyes. "That isn't what we were taught to do. We were trained to be fighters to the end; we can't just curl up into a ball and die! Wolverine wouldn't stand for that and matter of fact neither would the Professor. He protected us when we needed him and it's about time we returned the favor." The both of them stared at Betsy. "Come ON! Kurt, get in there. Kitty! Help them out. This fight ain't over and we **won't **take this lying down." Kitty and Kurt looked at each other and then ran towards a fight being fought by Polaris, Lifeguard, and Multiple.

"Need a hand?" Nightcrawler asked as he teleported Multiple and Polaris to the opposite side of the battle, allowing Polaris to launch a magnetic bolt, disrupting all their weapons.

"Thanks, I thought I was done for." She said, shooting him a smile. "I can't be out of the action cause I'm the only one left that is capable of using magnetism for defensive and offensive means."

"But what about--"

"Magneto? **Look** at him! Do you think that guy is in any shape to battle?" She interrupted Nightcrawler. "He's practically got a hole right through his chest!" Polaris then returned her attention to the battle and altered the gravity field around their attackers so they couldn't advance.

With every hit he took, Multiple multiplied even more. There were about two dozen of him and counting. He was definitely getting in everyone's way, which was a good thing. With him distracting them they couldn't aim. Lifeguard was watching him closely to make sure he didn't slip up. She was in her most common rescuing form; she was covered in golden metal and had wings out of her back. Seeing how she had been shot a couple times in her skin form she had also developed a minor healing factor that kept her going.

Nightcrawler had now begun porting all over the place, distracting the multitudes of troops. Now he was also porting his friends out of danger. Lifeguard was the only one who **didn't** need a hand. She was like an angel from heaven the way she was glowing in her golden armor.

"Shadowcat! You take that side!" Lifeguard yelled, pointing to the right. Nightcrawler took the liberty of attacking from above. When they launched the attack a huge blast was hear. All three stopped in their tracks. It was still unknown the location of the blast.

Suddenly, they saw Betsy come tumbling through the air with her psychic knife still glowing on her right fist. Lifeguard flew up and caught her. Betsy's right hand hit Lifeguard from the force of the impact and the psionic energy pierced her head. Heather returned to normal, without wings or golden armor. Both fell through the air. Kurt tried to catch Betsy but instead was hit by the falling Lifeguard. Plethora approached the scene and saw Nightcrawler and Lifeguard were still barely conscious.

"This ought to do it." She said, hitting both with a powerful force beam.

"Noooo!!!" Kitty shouted, diving to Kurt's side. "Why are you doing this?" She asked through sobs.

"Payment." Was the only answer; she lifted a finger and pointed it at her. "Now it's your turn." She charged herself up in order to expel the beam but once it was released, Kitty was gone in a gust of wind. "Wha…?!?"

"Did you **see** what you almost DID?!?" Quicksilver yelled at Shadowcat who was still teary eyed. "She almost took your head off with that!!"

"She got Heather and Kurt." Kitty wailed.

"Well don't let them get at **you**! We're running out of people if you didn't **notice**!" Kitty nodded in agreement with Pietro.

In a matter of minutes the fights had combined into one. The only remaining mutants practically had their backs against the wall. Polaris was working with what little metal she could find, for Magneto was too badly injured to be able to focus enough of his power. Avalanche was rocking the place but he wouldn't be able to last much loner, His headache was getting over powering, breaking any concentration he could have. Scarlet Witch was still throwing hex bolts and was being quite affective. Rogue was the only one left able to take the hits since she was metal. She was also using mind attacks but she was very worn and they weren't very affective. Toad and Quicksilver were kind of trapped with no way to help out.

"Remy beginin' to feel like dis is déjà vu, no?" A couple of the others shot him 'not now' sort of looks. In a way, though, he was right. Once again the fight had became a single battle and their own were back to back. Only this time the numbers had dwindled. Everyone was exhausted and appeared as if they would begin dropping like flies.

"Not so tough now, are ya?!?" Came the booming voice of Plethora. "Don't worry it'll all be over soon enough. No more struggle cause we'll have won." The over confidence in her voice was sickening. She was obviously taking her time because there was no threat and she wanted the pain to last.

"Come ON guys!! Get up, fight, don't give up!!" Betsy yelled, motivating them verbally and physically by practically shoving them back into the fight. No one really responded though as they all looked like they wanted to lay down and give up. Everyone was overwhelmed by the extremes of the situation and was afraid they'd only make it worse for themselves. "We CAN'T give up!! You're going to make all that fighting from the others count for nothing?!? Everyone who is captured right now went down fighting without throwing in the towel. The least we can do is the very same, for them!!"

Larger weapons were now being used to try and take them all down in one blast. So far Polaris had redirected some of these but she wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. Scarlet Witch was still going strong and Toad and Quicksilver were dodging everything, not fighting. Suddenly something that appeared to be a missile the size of an A-bomb was launched right at them. A moment before collision, someone flew in and carried off so it was angled towards the sky.

"M! I thought you were down already!" Betsy said sounding a bit relieved that it wasn't over yet.

"Not a chance! I got super strength on my side and I'm not about to let it go to waste!" She continued flying around as a distraction.

"Try this one on for size." Siryn mumbled to herself under her breath. Flying into the sky she let rip a loud scream rather than one in super high pitch. Their attackers covered their ears to shield themselves from the sound. Plethora was unaffected. She had a small smirk as she watched the desperation in her targets.

"Perfect." She thought to herself as she powered up a blast on each fist. One went sailing towards the Scarlet Witch who was trying to cover her ears and blast at the same time and the other towards the screaming Siryn. Multiple saw this and took a huge leap. It caught him square in the chest as he went flying backwards into a dismembered vehicle. Siryn stopped her actions. At the same time Wanda noticed too late that the beam was there and it hit her in the side of the head.

"WANDA!!" Toad screamed, while Pietro was practically thinking the same thing. She was his sister after all.

"JAMIE!!" Siryn yelled simultaneously with what Toad yelled. She was about to fly to his side but his remains were collected too quickly and she missed her chance of saving him. "It's just hopeless that's what it is!" Siryn pouted as she flew into a sitting position on the ground and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"**What** have I been telling you?!?" Betsy exclaimed. "It's anything **but** hopeless. It'll only be that if you allow it to be!!"

"Drop it, okay? Lets jus' face it, we're overwhelmed. There ain't nothin' we can do rahght now tuh fight." Rogue said as if it were a statement instead of an opinion.

"We CAN'T---"

"We have tuh!! What else is thare Betsy? Are yuh gonna fahght them off all by yurself?" All those left had gathered tightly together to hear this conversation, including the newly introduced M and Polaris. Jubilee was on the ground with Siryn practically moping; both were lost without hope.

"Quit sulking!!" Betsy shouted at them. "You can sulk when there's reason to!"

"Half our friends AND teammates just got captured okay? I'd call THAT a reason!" Jubilee snapped. A racket could be heard nearby. They all directed their attentions to the remainder of the Brotherhood, Toad, Avalanche and Quicksilver fighting to get Wanda back. So far it was pretty even cause she wasn't gone yet.

"You let her GO you $#&@#!!!" Yelled Toad to all the agents as he kept on spitting goop in their faces. Quicksilver was speeding circles around them and Avalanche rocked the ground beneath their feet.

Rogue was the most intrigued by this display, shot Betsy a truly evil look and began walking over to their little 'dilemma'. She stopped short and just watched for no apparent reason. Then all three Brotherhood boys were thrown backwards by some blast.

"Get over it! She's mine now!!" Plethora shouted sternly. Rogue still stood there, watching.

'Do it again!' Were thoughts that Rogue heard in her mind, only she wasn't sure if they were her own. In fact she was quite sure they weren't. She whipped around and looked at Magneto who was staring unblinkingly at her. 'We need Wanda's powers. You know it, I know it, even she knows it.' Once again, Rogue was unsure. This was an incredible burden placed on her shoulders.

"Rogue!" It was Wanda calling her, and to acknowledge she heard her Rogue made eye contact. "You've got to use my powers! I know I won't make it out but you can make some use of them."

"Ah don' wan'tuh." Rogue said, taking off a glove.

"But you **have** to! My power is useful and I'm not about to let all of us get captured so neither should you!" 

"Don't do it baby cakes!!" Toad's shouted as Rogue closed in. Toad advanced towards them just as Rogue reached out her fingers. Wanda was beginning to lose consciousness so she touched her cheek. "NOOO! How could you--"

"Relax Toad!" She used the Scarlet Witch's powers to keep him from getting closer.

"That ain't being fair!" Siryn shouted. "Toad was in the same situation as me but you **forced** him to not help! That's just plain cruel."

"Siryn! Get some back bone!" Betsy yelled.

"What the heck is wrong with you Betsy?!? You're not even an X-man. Why are you acting all high and mighty on us?!"

"This has **nothing** to do with me! I'm trying to keep us all safe!!"

"Sure well you did such a 'bang up job' with Jamie and Wanda!"

"Relax, **both** of you." It was M's voice with a sense of calmness. She came flying forward, low to the ground. She came into full view after going through a dust cloud, carrying none other than Jamie Madrox. "I got him."

A silence fell as the ones remaining looked around, realizing how greatly outnumbered they were.

"We don't have enough!" Polaris said in a strained voice as she watched Plethora leading the troops to advance. Everyone glanced at Lance.

"I got nothing." He said, looking exhausted.

"Well, surrender is **NOT** an option!" said Betsy, "We have to find another way."

"We're waitin' Betsy… what's the plan?" Rogue asked, putting immense pressure on her.

to be continued…

NOTE: well this chapter is almost half the length of the first 11 chapters. Please review, this scene took a LOT of time to write.


	13. the light of the crimson dawn

"What?!?" Rogue exclaimed, having heard Betsy's answer. "We cahn't jus' leave 'em! What about Scott an' the others?!"

"We can get them later! We need to retreat!!" Betsy yelled back.

"Okay then," Pietro started speaking, sounding condescending. "And how do you propose we **do** that?"

"Very fast." Betsy said a bit distractedly. Everyone's minds were unsure. Bobby and Jubilee shot each other looks as if asking 'what do you think?' No one had enough time to think because next minute a huge blast hit Jubilee in the side.

"NO!" Bobby shouted and then turned about to face Plethora. "YOU--"

"We gotta go NOW!" Betsy yelled. Bobby looked up.

"We can't leave without Jubilee!"

"Come on, this is our only chance!" She countered back and then pinkish light seemed to form a cloud of energy around Betsy's head. It grew larger and larger until it was big enough for even the Blob to fit through, had he been here. "In here, NOW!" Nobody looked sure, for they had no idea what this was. Then, M readjusted herself to hold an unconscious Jamie and flew straight in. The others didn't budge. "Come ON!" Betsy shouted once again. "This is our last chance." Siryn flew in next, following M. Bobby looked the most determined to stay.

Rogue and Kitty both looked longingly at a van parked a little ways away that held their friends. Rogue was thinking of Scott, Kitty was just concerned. She then turned around and marched to the portal, Lance was not far behind his Kitty. M flew back out with absolutely nothing in her arms.

"Where's--"

"Jamie?" M finished for Rogue. By the way Siryn had been wailing, she had learned his name quickly. "I handed him to Siryn. I came back to get--" She was cut off by a blast. M had been looking at Magneto before she was interrupted. Kitty and Lance stopped to look around, just outside the portal. Apparently a combination between Gambit and Polaris' attack had set off an explosion, which caused a chain reaction. If they didn't get out of there soon, they'd be buried. M took one step towards Magneto before Betsy gave her a tug in the other direction.

"Move or lose it, before we're buried!!" She yelled to everyone. Rogue and Iceman were still staring in the direction of the captives. Betsy pointed to Rogue, directing M to grab her as she grabbed Bobby by the collar. Firmly holding him, she herded all the others to the slowly closing portal. On the way she also grabbed hold of a slow Kitty and took her and Bobby with her. Kitty had a hold on Lance but he was wrenched from her grasp.

"LANCE-- let me go, you--" She pounded her free fist against Betsy who didn't even notice.

Everyone was cut off from their protests as they were rushed into the portal without Magneto or Avalanche. The portal closed the moment Betsy leapt in, with Bobby in one hand and Kitty in the other.

I was a world of raging energy, shooting this way and that. You could easily get lost in this jumble. Everyone who had gone before Betsy had waited for her in this field. Only she could guide through this other dimension known as the Crimson Dawn. Somehow she had an instant bond with the energy in this world. She could feel it flow through her, feeding her power she never knew she could have.

What seemed like aged was only seconds in reality. Everyone emerged, thrown into a heap as they exited. They had landed in the sewers 'God know where'.

One by one they each got up and tried to put their thoughts back together. Bobby's face was of only anger. He couldn't find Betsy to give her a good hit in the gut so he just shouted.

"We **have** to go BACK! We can't just leave them! Come out and face me Braddock!!" His eyes struggled to adjust so he could have his revenge.

"Ah won' let yuh Bobby! Not if Ah git a piece a' hur **first**!! BETSY! You left ahre friends tuh DIE! Scott's ahre leader an' we let them take him withou' a fahght!"

The others were pretty upset too. Theresa, for Jamie getting injured and leaving Sam, Toad, for leaving Wanda, Pietro, for his sister and partially for his father, Rogue, for leaving Scott, Logan and pretty much everyone else, Bobby for leaving Jubilee, and Kitty, for leaving Lance and Kurt. Soon they were all yelling with the exception of Gambit, Polaris, M and the unconscious Multiple. It was pure chaos because they were shouting everywhere. They were not yet sure where she was because it was pitch black.

"Mahnd if Remy takes a light?" He whispered to Polaris and M. As he asked he held up a playing card and it began glowing with Reddish energy. This was plenty to light up the tunnels around them with and the two girls giggled at Gambit's little play on words. When the light shown, a hush followed over the entire group. All of them looked around, but there was no sign of Betsy. They had emerged at a four-way tunnel down there in the sewers and it didn't look like she was down any of them. They had been yelling at nothing but air. Or so it seemed. Something from behind Gambit knocked the card out of his hand, causing it to explode. The sewer rumbled and without the little light they couldn't see what had happened.

Everyone backed up and faced the spot of darkness where Gambit had been standing. He lit up another card quickly. The others all jumped when it revealed Betsy standing less than a foot away from them with a not to friendly look on her face.

'BETSY?!?" Rogue exclaimed in disbelief. Everyone else was too stunned to talk and their mouths hung open, forgetting their complaints for a moment. The looks on their faces depicted a hint of bewilderment and fear.

Betsy looked very different. Not only did she seem to have a different aura around her, but over her left eye was a large red tattoo in the shape of a dagger. Even Gambit, normally calm, cool and collected, looked like he was biting his lip. Bobby swallowed his surprise and began the finger pointing.

"You just **LEFT** the others there! We could've saved them! If you hadn't been so careless, Jubilee would have escaped with us!"

"Lance, like, practically had his foot in that portal thing when those guys took him out!!" Kitty chimed in. All at once everyone began complaining to her face. Everyone except Gambit, Polaris and M who were not so sure what was wrong with Betsy. It seemed like she was almost a different person. It was Bobby who tried to attack her first by freezing her, in short, he missed. She walked backwards up the wall behind her and crouched with her back against the ceiling and her hands and feet pressed flatly against the wall. The spot where she had just been was ice, frozen in the shape of a C against the wall. Rogue and Betsy looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes with the same sneering look. Rogue reached over to touch Toad but he leapt away in good time. Then, remembering something she had done earlier, she tried to leap up and touch Betsy but failed. Betsy leapt to the ground about ten feet away. With a confidant smirk, Rogue began running towards Betsy and suddenly took flight. The Rouge came at Betsy like a… cannonball. The speed and resist she had was too great for the young psychic to so anything about it. In a second the two were on the ground, Rogue pinning Betsy. So far, Betsy was able to keep Rogue from touching her skin.

"What's th' big ahdea?!? **You** left them, **you** did it!! Ah though' Ah knew yuh Betsy, but th' Betsy Ah know would nevah leave her friends!" Betsy kicked Rogue off in a flip as she landed on her feet in the same movement. She leapt backwards a couple feet.

"Don't call me that." She said in a monotone voice.

"Call yuh whut?!" Rogue asked, annoyed because Betsy had escaped her grip so easily.

"Betsy." She said returning the glare Rogue had been giving her. "The name Betsy represents what I was. Now, I am Psylocke. A new name for new power."

"Whut new--" Rogue was cut off before she could finish asking. Betsy… or Psylocke had just disappeared, vanished, into the shadows. She reappeared behind everyone. They all whipped around, a little afraid of her.

"What do **you** have to be afraid of?!?" Betsy asked, glaring at them as if she could see right through them. "YOU are the ones who started this fight. What?!? Did you **expect** me NOT to fight back?!?? We had NO choice and I saved all your asses back there!! I could have run for it on my own, but I **'waited'**, I waited for you guys and this is the thanks I get?? Maybe next time I should leave you to rot with the others." Betsy's eyes had new fire in them as she screamed at them with newfound anger and frustration. In reality she was NOT the Betsy they knew, she **had** changed. It was still yet to be determined whether it was for better or for worse. As far as those who remained were concerned, it was for worse.

Silence blanketed their little group as their only light was still one of Gambit's cards. Many glances were exchanged between many people. It was as if Psylocke was daring anyone to challenge her.

"Look, we safe fo' now Remy t'inks so le's jus' drop it." Remy broke the tension as the battle lines were seemingly erased. Others let go easier than some, Theresa and Pietro, for example. Pietro believed his father and sister were more than capable of taking care of themselves and so he wasn't that much worried. Yes, he cared about Wanda but he was still a selfish little bastard at times, most times, and this was one of those times. Theresa cared that Jamie was hurt but she knew he was safe now and decided to not get caught up in this quarrel. Even though on the outside some like Rogue, Bobby, and Kitty let it go on the inside they still held onto the fact that their teammate… Psylocke was the reason they weren't back there trying to save their friends.

"Yuh **know** this ain't ovah!" Rogue said under her breath. "An' next tahme, Cajun, yuh won' stop meh either." She said with a curled lip and a glare.

"We will see 'bout dat chere, we will see." He shot her one of his irresistible smiles that made her blush. It seemed that there was nothing that could put a damper on his spirits. Their thoughts were cut short as a sharp blast sent one of the sewer walls flying. "Oops, maybe Remy spoke too soon befo'e."

TBC…

Please Review, I'd like to know how many people are reading my story. Please let me know if I make a mistake about the accents, this is my first time trying them, or the characters and their reactions. I want it to seem at least somewhat believable.


	14. trapped!

Sorry it took so long. I had it written, I just had to type it up. 

Everything was dark and strange noises could be heard from all around. Jubilee's head was pounding, as she could hear her heart beating in her ears.

"I can't see! I CAN'T SEE!!" She began screaming out of panic.

"Try opening your eyes." Came Jean's voice, a little muffled. Jubilee, feeling foolish, opened her eyes to see she was in a come sort of containment area. She was in a cylinder that had walls at least two feet thick and possibly reinforced. Instantly, she shot fireworks out of instinct at the wall. It bounced off and she had to dodge it three times before it dissipated. Jean was in a metallic cage and had contraptions around her head, wrists and ankles.

"What the--"

"They're bindings, because of these I can't use my powers. The others are all in similar situations." Jean gestured towards the rest of the large room they were in. There were many containment fields that varied depending on his or her powers. Heather was in a tank full of icy water and covered in probes. The only thing she wore was a swimsuit. She had a set of gills on wither side of her neck.

Lance was nearby and he was in a contraption with tons of shock absorbers. No matter how big the quake it did not break his cage or even reach outside of it to help break the others free.

Wanda's hands were behind her back and about four sets of handcuffs held her hands perfectly still. One locked her wrists into place, another held her knuckles, another the middles of her fingers and the last held the tips of her fingers in place. Not only that but an IV full of anesthetic was sticking under the skin in the palm of each hand, keeping them numb so she couldn't feel anything.

Those who were conscious now were trying to beak free but not succeeding. Each cage was specially made for each one's powers.

Scott and John were especially helpless. For John there was no fire for him to control and Scott had a machine on his head that had thick ruby quartz lenses covering his eyes that were impossible to remove. There was no way for him to release his optic blast.

There was a plastic box with 2x2 feet floor and a height of five feet; the walls were all four feet thick with an air hole somewhere. Inside was Storm, slowly coming to consciousness and beginning to panic.

"LET--ME--OUT! PLEASE!!!" She yelled and began pounding on the walls. Her powers raged against the box but it never relented. She ceased her pleads, but continued using her powers to attempt escape from such a small space.

"ngh…." A growl came from nearby. Logan had woken up and seeing he was caged he unsheathed his claws, only to find he couldn't move. His arms, wrists, legs, stomach, neck and elbows were tightly bound.

"You couldn't even get out if you tried, 'Wolverine'." A sickened voice sneered. "Those bars of your cage are adamantium."

"ERG--Who're you?!?" He snarled.

"**That** isn't important." He said back. "You and your little friends aren't going anywhere."

"That's what YOU think, bub!!"

"Take a look around, wild man! Each of you is contained according to your special abilities. Face it, there isn't a way out.

Logan looked around, for a second he made eye contact with Jubilee and Jean but continued looking. He saw Emma and Jean were both covered in probes on their temples, obviously to block their psychic powers in some way. Peter was forced to stay in human form because if he coated himself in metal then about 1,000 volts would course through him. Tabitha was next door, throwing time bomb after time bomb. She **had** been in shackles and broken out but the bars on her cage were each two feet thick and reinforced stainless steel. She would need extra force to ever hope to escape.

Blob was being kept in a very high-pressure tank in order to keep him from breaking the containment field. No matter how hard he pounded it would not, it could not, break. He dropped to the ground from exhaustion.

Sam and Roberto were in the same cage that had no light and was barred with adamantium. There was no light to giver strength to Robby and the bas were indestructible so Sam's power was useless. The two felt completely helpless.

Shiro was in a case of water up to his neck. Only his head was outside of the tank and still dry. The water was only slightly above freezing, keeping him from conjuring fire.

Kurt was still unconscious in a tank with some girl mutant who had been on the scene. Jamie was in there too, panic-stricken.

"Hey, HEY! Lemme out!" He yelled while pounding on the wall. "I don't belong in here!"

"Shuddup kid!!" The man yelled who had been taunting Logan.

"You don't understand! Half of me is missing!!" Everyone shot him curious looks, wondering what he could mean. Jamie paid no attention. "I'm not here!" He yelled at the others who believed he was going crazy. Jubilee was closest to where he was.

"JAMIE! Calm down!" she hissed. He quit pounding and quietly looked at her. He was right on the other side of her cage. He leaned against the wall that separated them.

"This isn't me." He told her softly. "I'm just a duplicate. The real me is… I don't know where, but anywhere else except here."

"How do you know that?" She whispered back.

"I split into two and me and him got knocked out before we could become one again."

"That means he escaped and… others escaped too! Look around, Betsy and Bobby sure aren't here." She kept whispering so as not to alert nearby guards.

"Yeah… and Kitty, and Rogue and… Theresa! She escaped!"

"Hush up! You want them to hear?!?"

"Sorry." He said, much more quiet than before. Jamie's gaze went past Jubilee to Jean who was standing as close as possible and listening. "Hey, can you do... ya know that thing--" he gestured at his head meaning her telepathy.

"No, I can't. I've already tried but they're… blocking me somehow. We're **all** caged here so we can't use our abilities."

"No duh! But by whom?!?" Jubilee asked. Both Jamie and Jean shrugged. "Hey… where's the Professor?" Jubilee asked, glancing around, noticing he wasn't there. Logan overheard the kids' conversation and began wondering that himself. He had figured out he was the first down but never figured Charles would be one of the ones captured.

"Hey, bub!! Where'd you put Xavier?!?" He growled, threateningly at the man whom he assumed was either a guard or some sort of 'scientist'.

"I have no obligation to tell you, but I will do so just to see the look on your face." He said maliciously. "Your dear 'Professor' is in an isolated containment unit ten times the size of this room. He and your 'dear' enemy Magneto are hooked up to one another in such a way that if Xavier uses his telepathy then it will kill Magneto. Their very systems are hooked together. The ironic thing is that the lack of using telepathy is keeping Mr. Lensherr from using his own abilities to rip this metal compound apart. We have studied both leaders' personalities and we know that the Professor will not kill anyone, even his enemy, and keep himself from attempting at his powers even if Erik were to beg. The only reason they are trapped is because of themselves." 

Logan showed no reaction to this speech once it ended. Everyone who was conscious had listened and heard every word. All of their jaws dropped feeling an oncoming doom was about to set itself upon them. If Xavier and Magneto were trapped who was there to save them?

"Now if you **won't** excuse me, I'll take my leave of your despicable presence." The man sneered as he left the room, arming it and locking it. Obviously if anyone were to try to leave through the door right now it would do something terrible like cause the room to explode.

**********

The room was incredibly dark without a single light shed. Not a sound could be heard in this abyss, when out of nowhere footsteps could be heard approaching. The only light now present was coming from behind the figure that had just entered the room.

"Well, well, well. I see **you're** finally up 'Professor'. It took long enough."

"Who are you, and what do you want of me?" He said in a calm but urgent voice.

"Why the rush, Xavier? And-- oh, oh, oh. I wouldn't do that if I were you. You see," he flicked on a light switch revealing the room around them and the presence of another… Magneto. "You are hooked directly up to our little magnetic friend here and if you so much as twitch your mind then he's done for. Your telepathy will do nothing but bring him death. You wouldn't want to 'kill' him now would you?" The Professor said nothing to this and merely examined the many probes and wires that connected him and his former friend.

"_~Charles…_" Magneto whispered in a raspy sort of voice as he just came back to consciousness. "_don't--don't listen to him, just do it._" Charles closed his eyes in shame.

"I'm sorry Magnus, but I won't. I am not about to resort to such a thing."

"That's a good boy!" The man said mockingly.

****

"Agent Livingston, report!" A voice came over a com-link that he had.

"Everything's fine here, sir. All is under control."

****

"Good. Have you received a check-in from Agent Winters?"

"Not yet, sir. She's still on assignment."

****

"Well you had better make sure Winters, alias Plethora, does NOT slip through our fingers again. To hell with this free agent business. When she arrives she will not leave the premises. Understand?!? Or it's YOUR head! ~~~~"

"Understood." He mumbled even though the transmission ended. "It wasn't **my** idea to hire her in the first place and yet he STILL blames it on him." He said to himself.

"Trouble at work?" Magneto asked derisively, even though he was coated in chains that weighed every inch of him down.

"Shut IT mutie!!" He shouted as he spun around and threw an white orb of energy at his head with perfect aim.

"uAGGhH!!" Magneto kept his howl of pain to a minimum, but it hurt like heck.

"You know what that was?!?" He yelled approvingly at the older man. "A ball of pure energy derived from organic life force, my life force. Your body is living and so is full of your own life force. If you gain any more it could overload your body and give pain you've never even dreamed of."

"Mr. Livingston, you're a mutant as well, why are you doing this to us? What purpose does this serve?"

"That's my business!"

"Well answer this then." Magneto began. "How is it you can throw your life force, what life force does that leave you to live on?"

"Ask me anymore stupid questions and you're in for a world of pain-- no, your students are in for a world of pain. Hurting you won't be enough to get through your thick heads. If I hear so much as a peep out of you, Shhhhick." As he said that he did the motion of chopping his head off. Charles posed no more questions as Agent Livingston exited the huge room and once again it was pitch black.

"Magnus if you'd ple--"

"I am not exactly in a position to do that now am I? I wasn't planning on baiting him anyway."

"Lets just hope those who did escape can find us."

"How do you know anyone escaped?" Magneto asked, playing the devil's advocate.

"What makes you think that at least one of ours did not have the cunning or the 'speed' to escape their clutches?" Even though the room hadn't an ounce of light Professor Xavier could tell Magneto was smirking in agreement.

TBC…

I'd really appreciate a review from everyone who reads this. Please review even if you haven't reviewed for this story yet.


	15. fly like an eagle

"Look who's baaack!" A jeering voice came as the outline of a feminine figure could be seen coming out of the dust. "Awww, aren't you going to say hello," it was Plethora, surrounded by a golden shield from her power. "Before you have to say goodbye?!?" She raised a hand threateningly at the group of escapees. "Any last words?"

"I've got some." Said Psylocke in the same airy, confidant voice. "How about… go to hell, bitch!" Psylocke yelled as in a flash she was behind the agent and had her in a headlock, holding her psychic knife an inch away from her head. Everyone just stared, stunned. Plethora was actually trembling with shivers running up and down her spine. "What's the matter? _Scared_?"

"No one's ever been able to--to get this close, let alone tou--touch me." This agent said through her shivers.

"Oh well isn't this a surprise for you?!? Well between now and then-- I've changed and now… you're going to pay!" 

"Hold it!" Betsy hadn't even moved a muscle. Two other figures came into view in the now settling dust. "You think you'll get away with something that easily?"

"You thought wrong." The other voice replied. The dust cleared to reveal two guys dressed in similar wear to Plethora, Agent Winters.

"Why don' ya do what's good for yuh an' buzz off?!?" Rogue yelled at them.

"No can do, see? Our "job" is to bring **you** in."

"Well then," Pietro began, cutting in, "bu bye!" He kicked on knee into the air to speed off. He hadn't gone four feet when he couldn't go any farther. He was floating in the air, both feet off the ground. "Hey!"

"You didn't think we were about to let you leave did you?" The other man spoke again. One of his hands was outstretched, obviously the reason that Pietro was now floating.

"Hey, yo!" Toad yelled and took a huge leap over everyone's heads to land on the guy stopping his teammate from escaping. He was almost there but stopped, midair, trying to grab this guy who was inches away from his grasp.

"You can't touch me!" This was so to speak since his mutant power was the ability to control and shift gravitational fields. By taking away Pietro and Toad's gravity they couldn't even touch the ground, let alone go anywhere.

"Let them GO!" Psylocke shouted, pointing her psychic knife at him and still holding Plethora in a headlock.

"Let her go and I'll let your little friends g--" He was cut off as a hand held him by the neck making him dangle above the ground.

"I think you'll let them down **without** us complying if you want to keep your vocal chords." Monet held him above her head with ease and her eyes looked most threatening.

"Well, comply THIS!" The second man yelled as he wielded a blue telekinetic energy from his forehead and hands. With that he threw Monet backwards and slammed her back into the wall.

"Ah'm getting' sick a' this. We end this now!" Rogue shouted and the others followed her into battle with the exception of Pietro and Toad who were still stuck. The man with telekinesis hit them all with a blast of energy. Rogue was the only one to stay standing because Jean's powers had just resurfaced inside of her. But, apparently his powers are greater than Jean's because he overpowered her, sending her flying. She was headed for a wall just like Monet but suddenly landed in someone's arms. She looked up to see the face of Remy staring down at her and for a moment she enjoyed the view. She suddenly realized to herself that she was supposed to despise him and pushed herself out of his hold almost causing herself to stumble and fall but she kept her balance.

"Come on chere. Don' y' wan' t' t'ank Remy fo' savin y'?" Rogue glared at him for a second, resenting him. Not because she quote unquote 'hated' him but because somewhere inside her she had hoped that he was the one who saved her out of all the people who were down here with her, that when she opened her eyes she would see him and no one else. She asked herself whether she would have acted this way had it been Bobby, --Pietro, or God forbid-- Toad who saved her. Most definitely yes popped into her mind. She shook herself out of her little trance, realizing there was indeed a fight at hand.

"Ah don' need yuh tuh come tuh mah rescue every given moment-- swamp rat!" She told him, content with that she got the last word. She did a one eighty and began to walk back in the direction of the fight.

"Maybe if y' weren' in trouble eve'y given momen', chere, y' wouldn' need Remy t' rescue y'!!" He shouted after her. She winced at his words because well… he was being a smart-ass about it. Rogue shook it off and pulled the weightless Toad and Pietro out of the line of fire just in time to miss a beam of heat projected by Plethora.

"AUGH!" Both Pietro and Toad let out a girlish scream at the same moment. Not only because they almost got barbecued but because it was Rogue who had saved them. "Okay yo, now--now let me go--" He stuttered, unable to takes his eyes off of their three attackers. Rogue released Toad but was smiling devilishly at Pietro who looked flustered, as she still gripped his arm.

"Lemme go!" he shouted, trying to pull himself out of her grip.

"Yuh know? That was the most-- **~interestin'~** scream yuh had there Pietro. All this tahme ya act like some tough guy when really--**really** yuh'll scream lahke a little girl at the first sahgn of real danger." Rogue mustered that out and began cracking up causing her to release the floating Pietro. He couldn't think of anything to say and blushed, but he still stared daggers at her. He would definitely find some way to 'pay her back'. He continued to try to reach out of the air and hit, smack, or punch her, anything, but she was out of his reach. A lurch in all space shut Rogue up and wiped Pietro's face blank. It was like some great force caused everything in existence to shift like the gravitational pull quivered or something. Everyone looked around to see the green-haired girl flying above them with her hands outstretched. The young mutants were still unsure of who she was and what her powers were.

"You **lackeys** picked the wrong mutant to mess with, BELIEVE me!" She shouted, lifting a hand that caused some pipes to wrap themselves around the man who could alter gravity. He was now hanging three feet off the ground by his neck. A wave of her hands and Toad and Pietro had terrified looks on their faces. The next second they dropped to the ground in a heap. Lorna's powers weren't just magnetic control but some control of electrical and gravitational fields, so she had restored Pietro and Toad's gravity. The man with telekinesis tried to reach her but was weakened by the intense activity around him. "You will pay for what you've done!!" Lorna declared, releasing a pulse of magnetic energy as strong as she could muster. Her powers seemed much stronger ever since arriving here through the Crimson Dawn like they were somehow boosted. Unfortunately that pulse was all she could muster, her newfound power was too much for her and exhausted her. That blast caused her to collapse and the ripple in space forced Psylocke to release her grip on Plethora.

"Am I supposed to be _frightened_ by this measly attempt?" Plethora asked, regaining her composure.

"You bet lady!!" Monet yelled diving at her and smashing her into the wall with all her force. Kitty was phasing through attacks placed by the gravitational mutant and Bobby kept trying to freeze the telekinetic. Gambit couldn't fare against either of the men since their powers could keep him from getting to them.

Plethora shot a force beam at M, throwing her into the ceiling of the sewer.

"Ya call that a tackle?" She mocked Monet before firing a heat beam from one fist and a light beam from the other. After a short struggle she gave orders to the other two agents. "We don't have time for this, men. Grab who you can and we'll finish this later."

****

"Negative, Agent Winters." A voice sputtered over a com-link she had.** "You won't leave 'till the job is finished and that means every--last--one. Over ~~~"**

A sour look spread on her face in response to that transmission and she continued to fight long and hard. The telekinetic was now gathering up Lorna and trying to use his powers to rip Jamie from Theresa's grasp.

"NO! I won't LET YOU!" She screamed, already losing control of her powers as her sonic abilities began taking affect in her regular speech. "go NNOOOOWWWW!!" She yelled with her sonic abilities. It definitely did damage but not as much as she would've hoped. It probably did worse for her friends than her enemies.

"Shut UP!" Plethora shouted at her, becoming more annoyed by the second. "Give them all you've got and take whoever drops!" She ordered, firing a force/heat beam in all directions while the other two stretched their powers over the entire sewers to take all of them out. When everything cleared most everyone was down but before Plethora could even give another command she was pinned against the wall by Monet and Pietro, a combination of speed and strength. "Don't waist my time!!" She snarled and blasted the both of them away and Monet was right back there, never relenting. "What does it take to take you down?!?" Then she swings M into the wall causing it to crumble on top of her. The telekinetic used his power to remove the rocks to reveal a very beaten Monet. "I guess **that's** what it takes." She said with a smirk, turning to converse with the two other agents.

"_Rogue…_" Almost a whisper was muster and she looked around to see where it was coming from, making sure the three agents didn't notice she was quite obviously conscious. "_Rogue…_" The voice was a little louder this time. "Do--me a--favor?" It was Monet, she wasn't beaten yet so to speak.

"What?"

"Come'ere a sec…" Rogue crawled on hands and knees part of the way and squatted down right next to her.

"Whut?!?" She said in a hurried whisper, her accent sounding thicker.

"This." Monet said as she reached both her hands and grabbed Rogue's face with her bare hands. The transfer started immediately. Rogue struggled to get out of the grip but Monet was still quite strong for being in such a weak position.

"Whut're yuh doin'!?!?" She almost screamed, drawing attention to the two of them. More than a minute had passed and they still remained in contact with Rogue unable to wrench herself free.

"I know you wouldn't have done it voluntarily-- Rogue. My powers are needed where I won't be for much longer." Rogue was speechless as she simply stared as she could feel Monet flowing into her. Agent Winters, also known as Plethora, pulled the two apart in a swift movement and she gestured for the telekinetic to retrieve her.

"I though you were down. Guess I thought wrong!" Agent Winters said to Rogue as she grabbed her by her clothed wrist. "You and your friends are coming with me."

"Ah don' think so!" Rogue shouted as she flipped Agent Winters over her head and into the wall with such ease she never thought possible. For those who were still fighting the fight, they were dealing with the gravity guy. She noticed Gambit in particular, throwing card after card. "Hey-- swamp rat, look out!!" Rogue took flight and actually picked him up and flew to the ceiling out of danger.

"Why chere, Remy di'n know y' cared." Rogue didn't have any retorts to that.

"Who's rescuin' who now?" She answered him with a smile.

"Remy t'ink y' got a point, chere."

"Tahme for me tuh drop yuh at yur stop now." She said, landing him on a ledge out of harm's way. "Don' yuh go nowhere."

"Y' got mo' t' worry bout dan Remy, chere." He said pointing at the three, still conscious agents collecting the others.

"Ovah mah dead body!" She yelled and flew back down as fast as she could.

"Jus' make su'e to keep it f'om comin t' dat, ight chere?!?" He yelled after her. He noticed Rogue had this new zeal inside of her and it wasn't just now but a couple times ever since the fight had begun in the middle of the city. It was gradual but inevitable.

On the ground Psylocke wasn't 'down' yet but she sure didn't have any energy left. Rogue flew back and forth delivering devastating blows to both men while the others tried to stop Agent Winters including Kitty, Pietro and Toad.

"Shoo flies, don't bother me." She said with a wave of her hand making them all fly backwards into a wall.

"Oh NO! She's got Monet! Someone, like, do something before she gets away!" Kitty shouted, half covered by rocks, half covered by the torsos of Toad and Pietro and way to panicked to focus on phasing. The other two agents ran after their lead agent like scared little puppies with their tails between their legs. They were closely followed by Rogue who stopped short and hovered above the heap that was Kitty, Toad and Pietro.

"They're gone." She stated and turned back into the sewer, her back facing the crumbled wall their enemies had entered through.

"Hey, like, what about Monet?" Kitty asked urgently, worried about their new ally.

"She knew she wouldn' win the fahght (fight) back. She took a dahve (dive) in battle jus' so the rest of us could survahve (survive). Now Ah have her powers, an'-- an' Ah've never felt a consciousness so strong in meh before.

"Hey, you've never been in contact with anyone for that long, have you?" Bobby intervened. "Oh well, never mind that. If we couldn't save our closest friends forget her. Totally not worth it!"

"Bobby!" Kitty snapped, full of surprise. "I'm, like, definitely having doubts that you ever should've become an X-man. I can't believe you could be so insensitive!"

"Insensitive? We **abandoned** our best friends, our teammates out there and in here we let go of one meaningless person and the one is more important than the lot?!? Is she any more important than any of our friends? Don't talk to me about **'insensitive'**!!" On his last word he glared at Psylocke who took no surprise on his reaction. In fact she had expected it with reading his mind during the whole ordeal.

"Well, if you're done preaching to the choir, 'Drake'. Why don't you seal up that huge whole and be some help for once?" Bobby continued glaring at her even after her comment and offhandedly iced up a wall where there once was one without removing his stare. "Good to see you taking advice for once, but I'm sure it's only because you know I'd have your spot on the team had I arrived at the institute at the same time as you."

" 'nough said, let's take flight a this place, before they decide to come back for round two." Rogue suggested. She still flew in the air, thoroughly enjoying the feel. It was nothing like using Storm's power to fly, it was just flight. They began pressing on slowly in a random direction.

"Hey chere, yoohoo!! Rogue! Y' ain't gonna leave Remy up he'e fo'ever now r y'?!?" Rogue doubled back and flew so she was face level with him. 

"Yuh wanted somethin' Cajun?" She asked innocently.

"How 'bout a lift fo' y' ol' pal Remy?"

"Pals are we now? Seems lahke it changes with every meetin'." Remy had a pleading face on that she couldn't resist. "Fahne." She said, rolling her eyes in a fake annoyance fashion. She scooped him up and flew off to catch up with the rest of the group.

"Remy tell y' sometin chere. He could get **used **t' dis." He said grinning ear to ear. Rogue huffed and then dropped him into the sewer water with a wave of annoyance and continued flying at the same height.

"Now yuh really are a swamp rat, **swamp rat**!" She sneered at him as she flew ahead faster to gain the lead of the group. Remy stood up in the greenish sewer water; not caring about the smell or the lack of sanitation just stood there. There was something about her whether it was the challenge or the feistiness that drew him to her and he felt that he had just made a very large dent in that thick shell of hers.

TBC…


End file.
